from Frank Seravalli of TSN,

Hockey is back. The puck drops on the NHL regular season in just 30 days, unbelievably.

In case you went into hibernation during the too-short summer, here are the 10 biggest developments of the off-season:

97 + 29 = $168,000,000: That’s a lot of zeroes. But Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli will sleep soundly knowing he has the highest scoring one-two punch in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl locked in for the next eight seasons. Starting in 2018-19, when McDavid’s eight-year, $100- million deal begins, their combined salary cap hit of $21 million will match Chicago’s Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane for highest-paid tandem in the NHL. The NHL’s only triple digit scorer in McDavid, 20, shaved $6 million off his deal to allow Chiarelli and the Oilers greater cap flexibility in the future. It took until Aug. 16, but Draisaitl inked his $68-million deal with an $8.5 million salary cap hit after finishing eighth in league scoring last spring. The Oilers swapped Ryan Strome for Jordan Eberle, added Jussi Jokinen on the cheap, and bought out Benoit Pouliot – but by far the biggest coup of the summer was the fact that no one will be asking salary cap questions about two of the game’s biggest names until at least 2024.

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