from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,

- Forget age and money: My top 11 centres in the NHL. You pick the order. Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid, Anze Kopitar, Nathan MacKinnon, Mark Scheifele, Evgeny Kuzenetsov, Auston Matthews, John Tavares, Sasha Barkov, Evgeni Malkin, Patrice Bergeron … After that: Ryan Getzlaf, Tyler Seguin, Steven Stamkos, Jack Eichel, Nick Backstrom, Sean Couturier, Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Johansen and Toews. Again, you pick the order.

- Ottawa, Montreal, Edmonton and Vancouver all missed the playoffs in the NHL last season and really, none have done anything this off-season to leave the impression that they’ll be back competing for a spot. The difference: Edmonton has McDavid, Montreal has Carey Price. Either at their best are capable of carrying teams a long way.

- The best line in the NHL last season was William Karlsson centring Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith — and really, did anyone see that coming?

a few more hockey notes...