Michigan State commit Mason West was so pre-occupied juggling football and hockey as a high school junior, the 17-year-old didn’t realize he was entering his NHL draft-eligible year.

That’s before the 6-foot-6, 215-pound hockey center/quarterback from Edina, Minnesota, got his invite to the NHL scouting combine.

“I was just taking it one day at a time,” said West, who is committed to play at MSU, and had a goal and nine points in 10 games as a rookie with Fargo of the USHL this year.

“I didn’t really know the NHL stuff was going to happen this year,” added West, ranked 27th on Central Scouting’s list of North American skaters. “I kind of just kept working hard and opportunities came my way. So I’m just going to keep the same mindset.”

After splitting his time at football and hockey evenly, West went all-in on hockey following the opportunity to play in the USHL. He’s not giving up entirely on football yet entering his senior high school season.

“I try to set goals for the football and hockey year to try to win a state championship in both,” said West, who describes himself as a pocket-passer in football. “I’ve been able to do that in hockey, but not football yet. So that’s kind of the reason I have to go back and maybe win one.”

West’s idol is New York Islanders captain Anders Lee, who is from Edina, and also played quarterback in high school.

Sabres forward Peterka dealt to Mammoth

The Buffalo Sabres’ long-anticipated offseason retooling began late Wednesday night with the team agreeing to trade forward JJ Peterka to the Utah Mammoth to acquire forward Josh Doan and defenseman Michael Kesselring, a person with direct knowledge of the deal confirmed to The Associated Press.

The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the deal had not yet been announced by the teams. DailyFaceoff was the first to report the trade.

This is a major swap of young players all within their first three seasons of NHL experience.

The 23-year-old Peterka is coming off consecutive 25-plus goal seasons, and was scheduled to become a restricted free agent next week. He is anticipated to already be in discussions on a new contract with Utah.

Doan, a 23-year-old winger, is the son of longtime Arizona Coyotes star Shane Doan, and his departure is the organization’s latest move that separates this Salt Lake City chapter from the past. He had seven goals and 19 points in his rookie season with Utah last year.

Kesselring, a 25-year-old defenseman, played alongside Doan for the U.S. when it won the world championships in May for the first time since 1933. He completed his second full NHL season with seven goals and 29 points – both career highs.

The Sabres were expected to shake up their roster after a disappointing finish in Lindy Ruff’s first season back with the team. Buffalo finished 14th in the Eastern Conference standings and extended its NHL-record playoff drought to a 14th season.

The Mammoth, meantime, acquire a promising offensive star while keeping their No. 4 pick in the NHL draft on Friday night.

Union discuss 84-game season

Moving to an 84-game regular season from 82 is one of the topics that has been discussed in collective bargaining talks between the NHL and the NHL Players’ Association, according to a person familiar with negotiations.

The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Wednesday because the subjects involved in CBA discussions are not being revealed publicly by either side.

The potential change that could go into effect as soon as 2026-27 would reduce the preseason to four games per team. It is among the several tweaks the league and union are talking about, a list that is believed to also include contract terms and long-term injury rules.

Going to 84 games could also even out scheduling with the league at 32 teams playing each division opponent four times, three against the other division in the same conference and two against those in the other conference. It could alternatively lead to more rivalry games.

Commissioner Gary Bettman told reporters in Los Angeles that the Board of Governors received a substantial update on the state of negotiations. Bettman said any agreement would be subject to ratification by the board.

Bettman and NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh said at the Stanley Cup Final voiced optimism about the situation. Bettman said they were “in really good shape, having really good discussions.” Walsh said: “It’s moving forward and I feel good with where we are and we’ll see what happens.”

The current CBA does not expire until September 2026, so there is no tight deadline to work with along with a lack of major issues to confront where the sides are far apart.

The NHL had an 84-game regular season from 1992-94, with the league and union agreeing to add to two neutral-site games for each team.

Oilers trade Kane to Canucks

Evander Kane is going home to play for the Vancouver Canucks after a trade from the Edmonton Oilers that helps the two-time defending Western Conference champions free up some much-needed salary cap space.

Vancouver acquired Kane on Wednesday for the 117th pick in the upcoming NHL draft, taking on his entire $4 million salary. Edmonton clears $5.125 million off the cap, with Leon Draisaitl’s new contract taking effect and Evan Bouchard set for a raise of his own.

“Evander is a physical power forward who will add some much-needed size and toughness to our group,” Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin said. “We like the way he wins puck battles along the boards and handles himself in the dirty areas in front of the net. Evander moves well around the ice and has proven to be a productive goal scorer in the National Hockey League. We are excited to bring him back home to Vancouver and our staff looks forward to working with him this coming season.”

The soon-to-be 34-year-old winger broke the news on social media that he had been traded, his agent soon confirmed it and the teams announced it not long after. He posted a lengthy message thanking the Oilers and saying he was looking forward to the next chapter of his career in his hometown in British Columbia.

Kane returned early in the playoffs after missing the entire regular season following multiple surgeries to repair a series of injuries and had six goals and six assists on Edmonton’s second consecutive run to the Stanley Cup Final. He took six minor penalties and led all players with 32 penalty minutes in the series loss to Florida.

“To my teammates – thank you for the battles, the friendships, and the memories,” Kane posted. “I’ll always remember the playoff runs, the highs and lows, and the pride of going to war with a special group of guys.”

Vancouver will be the fifth organization and sixth city for Kane, who was drafted by Atlanta, followed that franchise to Winnipeg and also has played for Buffalo and San Jose. He played at the junior level for the Western Hockey League’s Vancouver Giants.

“It’s an honor to become part of an organization and team I grew up watching as a kid,” Kane said. “Vancouver is a city that lives and breathes hockey, I’m looking forward to the opportunity to play in front of my hometown.”

The fourth-round pick involved, originally Ottawa’s, is the same one the Oilers sent to the Canucks for Vasily Podkolzin last August.

Eklund’s persistence won out

Victor Eklund refused to take no for an answer in badgering his Tier 2 Swedish league coach Robert Kimby to have him play on the same line as long-time friend Anton Frondell last season.

“Yeah, I think I told him 10 times,” Eklund recalled at the NHL pre-draft combine in Buffalo earlier this month. “And he was like, `Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don’t know.’”

And then, one day after the Christmas break the two got their wish in eventually helping Djurgarden win a championship, and propel the pair to the top of central scouting’s rankings of international skaters.

Frondell, a center, is ranked first and a candidate to be selected as high as No. 2 by San Jose at the NHL draft in Los Angeles on Friday. He’s a powerful playmaking skater who had 11 goals and 25 points in 29 games last season, second among league players 18 or younger.

Eklund prides himself as a pesky winger, and regarded as a top-10 selection after finishing ahead of Frondell with 19 goals and 31 points in 42 games last year.

“I just knew from the beginning that if we got the opportunity, we’d take it and be the best line,” said Eklund, whose older brother, William, was a 2021 first-round pick (No. 7), and completed his second full season with San Jose. “The coach probably got sick of me asking.”

The two have known each other since playing on competing teams as 10-year-olds in Stockholm. And they’ve been teammates since 2021.

“I remember he actually made a move on me, like the puck between my legs,” Eklund said. “He says he doesn’t remember it, but I do.”

Sitting next to Eklund, Frondell responded with a smile, saying: “I actually do remember that move.”

Bring Hagens Home

Boston College center James Hagens has seen the “Bring Hagens Home” bumper stickers when back home on Long Island. “It was pretty funny, gives you a good smile,” said Hagens, who grew up an Islanders fan. As for whether he made eye contact with the person in the car with the sticker, central scouting’s top-ranked U.S.-born prospect laughed and said: “Nah, I just tried to put my head down as he drove by.”

Since 2015, 11 U.S.-born players have been selected among the top-five picks, including Auston Matthews (2016) and Jack Hughes (2019) going No. 1.

Among mother-son hockey connections, Arizona State forward Cullen Potter’s mother Jenny was a four-time U.S. Olympian. She was a member of the 1998 gold medal-winning squad, and holds the U.S. record with 32 career points in Olympic competition – five more than Hilary Knight, who is set to make her fifth Olympic appearance in February.

Knights re-signing Smith

Reilly Smith is re-signing with the Vegas Golden Knights on a one-year contract worth $2 million, according to a person with knowledge of the deal.

The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Wednesday because the team had not announced the extension. It comes with a full no-trade clause, the person said.

Smith was one of the original “Misfits” from the franchise’s inaugural season in 2017-18 after then-general manager George McPhee selected him from Florida in the expansion draft. He helped Vegas win the Stanley Cup in 2023 and was traded to Pittsburgh that summer.

Dealt to the New York Rangers last year, he rejoined the Golden Knights at the trade deadline in March and is now staying around for another season.

Smith, 34, had 40 points last season, including 11 in 21 games with Vegas down the stretch. He has 255 goals and 381 assists for 636 points in 1,036 NHL regular-season and playoff games.

Keeping Smith around at a salary cap-friendly rate could allow GM Kelly McCrimmon to be aggressive in free agency when the market opens on July 1, especially if the chronic issues Alex Pietrangelo has been playing through keep the veteran defenseman off the ice next season and land him on long-term injured reserve. Mitch Marner and Brad Marchand are among the big-name stars available.

Decentralized draft a logistical challenge

NHL teams for the first time in a non-pandemic environment will not be gathering in one place for the draft, and the mind-boggling logistics of decentralizing the annual event are right up Steve Mayer’s alley.

The league’s president of content and events has masterminded how to put on outdoor games, All-Star weekends, the Stanley Cup Final in a bubble and last year’s draft at the Sphere. Holding a smaller get-together at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles with similar pageantry and coordination between 32 teams spread across North America has become his department’s next big challenge.

“We thought this would be simpler, and it’s actually become way more complicated,” Mayer said Tuesday from LA. “Everything has to be spot on. It was so much easier when you can look at table No. 6 and they were making their pick and it was easy. I just think this is way more complicated than it had been in the past.”

Commissioner Gary Bettman will be on site, along with nearly 100 of the top prospects, 32 of whom will be selected in the first round Friday night and the others expected to hear their names called Saturday when the draft resumes.

Then there are 90-plus remote cameras for the draft rooms in the various markets – including the Philadelphia Flyers setup down the shore in Atlantic City – and the guest selectors who will be announcing the picks, such as Jeremy Jackson and Marguerite Moreau of “Mighty Ducks” movie fame for the Anaheim Ducks.

There won’t be a crowd of more than 100,000 fans in attendance like the NFL draft, though the NHL is hoping to put on a different kind of spectacle that translates well to TV. That includes a virtual environment a player will walk into and be able to interact with the staff of the team that just picked him.

“They’re going to have a back-and-forth interaction with the kid they just drafted (and) the kid will have an opportunity to say a few words back at this group, which will be captured for television and it will be quite unique,” Mayer said. “That moment in that environment … is what I think will set us apart from the NBA and Major League Baseball and the NFL, to an extent.”

The NHL also gave itself a tough act to follow with the spectacle at the Sphere last year. That was a celebration of the last in-person draft (or so everyone thought) for a while, and the venue on the Las Vegas Strip stood out as the star.

This is nothing like a sequel, but some of the graphics that debuted in the Sphere will be back.

“We’re taking some of those same elements, as you’ll see, to give our environment depth,” Mayer said. “On television, I think it’ll look spectacular. Whether it’s decentralized, centralized, we don’t care. Just tell us what we need to do, and as an event team we’re willing and ready to pull it off.”

Pull it off now. But for how long?

Bettman has repeatedly said teams – not the league office – asked and then voted for the draft to be decentralized. There’s some regret about that, so decentralizing may be a one-off, one-year thing.

“If after this experience the clubs say, ‘You know what, on second thought let’s go back to the old format,’ we’ll do that,” Bettman said in Edmonton at the final. “What we do will be totally in response to what the clubs tell us they want.”

Club officials aren’t quite sure what they want. This will be Washington Capitals assistant general manager Ross Mahoney’s 28th NHL draft, and he compares it to the virtual ones in 2020 and ’21.

“It gives you more freedom to talk,” Mahoney said. “When you’re on the draft floor, the next table’s right here with scouts on other teams and that, so I guess it gives us a lot more freedom to speak freely and talk about things. But yeah we’ll have a better idea after Saturday.”

Mathieu Darche, GM of the New York Islanders who have the No. 1 pick, enjoys being on the draft floor with everyone in the same city. Maybe he’ll get his wish next year, but he’s fine with this as he runs a team for the first time.

“I’m comfortable with both situations,” Darche said. “Whatever the league decides, I’ll be doing my job.”

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