With the start of NHL training camp just a few short weeks away, here’s a comprehensive look at the top-5 off-season, free-agent signings from around the National Hockey League.
They bite! They bite! (Cue the exhilarating theme song from Steven Speilberg’s Jaws films). Regardless of how you choose to associate with the San Jose Sharks, they remain one of the best-run organizations in not only the National Hockey League but in all of North America. This off-season, like so many others in recent history for this team, is embraced with high hopes, as their quest for Lord Stanley continues. The question begs…could this be the year for the boys in teal?
It’s Devilish-ly good! Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to sunny Newark, New Jersey. Home of famous television series, “The Sopranos”, and the New Jersey Devils. After reaching the Stanley Cup Finals during the 2011/12 campaign, it’s been a tough go for the die-hard hockey fans in the swamp over recent years. Entering play this season, the Devils have missed the playoffs in six of the last seven seasons. A long way away from the franchise that hoisted Lord Stanley, hockey’s holy grail in 1995, 2000, and 2003. But Hey, this ain’t your father’s Devils. Long gone are the days of Scott Stevens, Claude Lemieux, Patrik Elias, Scott Niedermayer, Martin Brodeur and “Uncle” Lou Lamoriello. Times are changing for the black and red, and this season will be the most anticipated in recent years, by a country mile.
It was an up-tempo and interesting off-season for the Arizona Coyotes. Like many other markets across the United States of America, the hockey team often plays second or even third-fiddle to their NFL, MLB, and NBA franchises. But as we inch closer to kick-starting another NHL season, few in the hockey world would argue that the “Yotes” have added some “pep in their step”.
“You’ll be counting stars”. “When you wish upon a star”. “I’m a Starboy”. Take your pick on the pop-cultural references, because any one of them can definitely be applied to the talented crop of players who dawn the green, white, and black from deep in the heart of Texas.
Ahh, that sweet smell of summer. For many around the hockey world, the summer months of June, July and August bring with it a sense of enjoyment, additional time spent with family, and for some NHL players, a new home. July 1st has come and gone in a whirlwind of acquisitions which many hockey networks across both Canada and the United States refer to as: “Free Agent Frenzy”. With the start of NHL training camps set to begin in about 4 weeks time, many NHL players are still in need of new contracts and that sense of stability that undoubtedly comes with being an unrestricted free agent at seasons end. Let’s take a look at the top-5 remaining unrestricted free-agents, who are still up for grabs in mid-August.
Each September the National Hockey League is filled with various sights and sounds that would give any hockey player, coach, executive, broadcaster, analyst, insider or passionate fan goosebumps. The summer is over, the start of the new campaign is just a few short weeks away, and NHL training camps are up and running across Canada and the United States. Players young and old, are hopeful for their “shot” at cracking the big club. New faces are hoping to make an all-important first impression with their new clubs, and for head and assistant coaches and general managers across the league, they’re trying to get a read on their clubs and hope to hit the ground running come puck drop. With this excitement, also come the pressures of being at the highest level, surrounded by the best teams, players, and fans on the planet. Pressure, “hot seat”, “under the microscope”, you name it, is something that Toronto Maple Leafs Head Coach, Mike Babcock, will be at the pinnacle of in 2019/20.
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