It might be a new year. It might be the 10th season. Much is the same with the Vegas Golden Knights. They know how to win season openers, and win coaching debuts.

Coach Ryan Craig’s debut as Knights coach couldn’t have gone better in a complete 5-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks at T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday.

The Knights improved to 8-1-1 ...Read more

BOSTON — Fraser Minten wasted no time in earning some of his money.

The Boston Bruins showered the 22-year-old center with riches in the offseason, giving him a seven-year contract worth $7.2 million a season.

And with 3:46 left in the third period in a scoreless tie with the New York Rangers, Minten scored the game-winner on a pure snipe to...Read more

LAS VEGAS — If Jack Eichel could live at a hockey rink, he probably would. That’s how dedicated the Vegas Golden Knights center is to his craft.

This is the same player who will join an optional skate, shoot 100 pucks into a net and say it was just because he wanted extra touches. He’s been one of the hardest-working players in the ...Read more

RALEIGH, N.C. — Don’t expect Carolina Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour to be emotional when the Stanley Cup banner is raised Tuesday at Lenovo Center.

The Florida Panthers will be in the house. It’s time to start a new season. It’s great to put a new banner next to the one Brind’Amour helped win as the Canes captain in 2006, but it�...Read more

TAMPA, Fla. — It was one thing to feel the all-too-familiar sting of another first-round playoff exit. What made it even more difficult for the Tampa Bay Lightning heading into an early summer was that they felt like they had recaptured the camaraderie and swagger of the franchise’s championship teams.

The organization has been remarkably ...Read more

One day last spring, just after the Flyers had finished an off-day practice in Raleigh during the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Carolina Hurricanes, Matvei Michkov lingered in the locker room, the only player there.

Two or three media members were hanging out, too, chatting with him about soccer, Michkov chatting back in splintered ...Read more

Andrei Kuzmenko will return to Russia following the death of his father and will likely be away from the Penguins as they conclude the preseason.

Alexander Kuzmenko was killed by a bear while on a fishing trip this week, according to a report from Russian media outlet REN TV. The report said he was fishing with several travel companions in the ...Read more

DENVER — The running joke in the Grading The Week offices is that Joe Sakic will have his job forever. And by Joe Sakic, we don’t mean Super Joe. We’re talking about Cyber Joe.

Cyber Joe is an artificial intelligence program that replicates everything that the smartest man in the NHL does right now, only a gazillion times faster. Joe’s ...Read more

LAS VEGAS — In one way, everyone is embracing a clean slate. A starting over point, as their new coach likes to call it. In another, there isn’t a player on the Golden Knights who wants to forget.

You can have it both ways, of course.

One doesn’t have to cancel the other.

Ryan Craig has begun his tenure as the Knights’ coach and yet ...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. — The Sharks’ Ryan Warsofsky, the NHL’s youngest coach who has helped orchestrate a turnaround for the franchise during his two seasons as its head coach, has signed a multi-year contract extension, the team announced Thursday.

Terms of the 38-year-old Warsofsky’s new contract were not disclosed, but he was entering the...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Former San Jose Sharks forward Ryan Reaves, one of the NHL’s most feared enforcers during an unlikely and memorable 16-year career, announced his retirement on Wednesday with training camps across the league set to begin.

A fifth-round draft choice by the St. Louis Blues in 2005, the 39-year-old Reaves played for seven ...Read more

LAS VEGAS — It was never a matter of if the Vegas Golden Knights were going to extend Mark Stone. Just when, and how much.

The Knights took care of an important piece of contract business before the start of training camp, signing their captain to a two-year extension on Saturday.

The contract carries a cap hit of $9 million and will keep ...Read more

Barry Melrose was never an NHL All-Star.

He never got to hoist the Stanley Cup, although he did come close as coach of the Kings.

Still, to many sports fans, Melrose was the face (and hair) of hockey. ESPN announced Wednesday that its beloved, longtime analyst with the slicked-back mullet died at age 70. He had been a fixture in the network's...Read more

FORT WORTH, Texas — The jet fuel behind the Dallas Mavericks, Texas Rangers and Dallas Stars that once flowed like a fire hydrant has trickled into drops from a leaky bathroom sink.

The financial, and PR, mess that was Bally Sports continues here in Dallas-Fort Worth, only this time it goes by the name of “Victory+.” A more appropriate ...Read more

DENVER — Brock Nelson won’t be 54 forever.

We kid, of course. Nelson, the Colorado Avalanche’s affable center, the Olympic gold-medalist with the graying temples and silky stick, celebrates his 35th birthday in October. His contract expires after the 2027-’28 season. Same with rock-steady defenseman Josh Manson, who also turns 35 in ...Read more

DENVER — Cale Makar’s path to the Hockey Hall of Fame will continue in Denver into the next decade.

The Colorado Avalanche and the superstar defenseman have agreed to an eight-year contract, he announced Friday afternoon on the club’s social media account. The deal is worth $163.2 million, which makes it the largest in NHL history. It ...Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Considering the aggressive moves general manager Mike Grier made this summer to try upgrading the roster, Macklin Celebrini feels strongly that the San Jose Sharks are fully capable of making the playoffs this upcoming season.

Celebrini also believes that even when his massive five-year, $94 million contract extension he ...Read more

RALEIGH, N.C. — For years, the Carolina Hurricanes were cheap — in a bad way.

Following the Canes’ appearance in the NHL’s 2009 Eastern Conference final, the team began pinching pennies, maintaining a low-budget, internal ceiling that saw the team rank consistently among the league’s bottom third in cash spending with respect to the ...Read more