The 2018-2019 National Hockey League season kicks off Thursday morning with four games, including the Toronto Maple Leafs-Montreal Canadiens Rally. It is quite possible that this will be the quietest season of the best ice hockey championship in the world in a long time, because the collective agreement between the players’ union and the owners of the club expires next September, that is, before next season, and there is a huge gap between the demands of the two sides. between. Of course, there is still plenty of time until then, and there may be hope for an agreement.
Last season ended in a special way. Washington won her first championship in history against the Vegas Golden Knights, who marched straight to the Finals in his first season, thus breaking all relevant NHL records. It is a big question whether Aleksander Ovechkin will lead the Budapest team to the top again. Iteration is not very frequent, because in the last twenty years, only the Pittsburgh Penguins, who could be the capitals’ most dangerous competitor, have succeeded.
There is also not Vegas, which in the summer signed another excellent striker in the person of Montreal player Max Pasurietti, further weaving the bloodiest dreams of the Golden Knights. One thing is for sure, from the East, Washington and Pittsburgh will have to meet each other in the main group finals at the latest, while from the West, as well as Las Vegas, Nashville, Winnipeg and Minnesota can also get there.
Of course, it’s very likely that paperwork will be scrapped this year as well, and that can be changed with two important summer transfers. From the west, San Jose can have a say in the senior business, who signed the league’s best defender, Swede Erik Carlsson, who left Ottawa after nine years, as the senators received four players and one from the first and second rounds. Draft selection in the exchange. Karlsson could be a free agent next year, a long-term contract is sure to be signed with him in no time.
Another big signing of the summer was the signing of Toronto, which took the first pick from the 2009 draft, playing rights to Jon Tavares of the New York Islanders, who have grown in recent years. The Olympic-champion Canadian striker scored 272 goals and 621 points in 668 NHL games for the humble islanders. With him, the Maple Leafs will be able to go far in the league.
In any case, teams can operate from a salary cap of $79.5 million this season. In this year’s draft, Buffalo picked first and picked Swedish defender Rasmus Dahlen. The interesting thing about this is that only two Canadian and American names appeared in the top ten, and the others came from Europe (two Swedes and one Russian, one Finnish and one Czech each).
Six teams start the season with a new coach, and interestingly enough, Washington’s successful coach, Barry Trotz, has left the rival New York Islanders. The regular season will continue with unexpected results until next April, after 82 matches each team can assess whether they have made it to the playoffs.
