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Northville’s Owen Michaels was named captain of the defending champion Western Michigan Broncos last week.
Michaels had a career-high 36 points in the regular season last year with 18 goals and 18 assists and he added four goals in the Frozen Four to help the Broncos win the national championship.
“It is an honor being named captain of this team,” Michaels said in a statement. “It’s a privilege to wear the Bronco jersey, and I am blessed to have the opportunity to lead this team alongside Samuel Sjolund, Cole Crusberg-Roseen and Brant Slukynsky.”
In his career, Michaels has 43 points on 20 goals and 23 assists in 80 games. He also won 54.5 percent of his faceoffs, had two power-play goals, two game-winning goals and a plus-33 rating.
WMU will open the season on Oct. 4 with an exhibition game against the USNTDP U18s at Lawson Arena. The regular-season opener is set for Oct. 9 at home against Ferris State.
Erik Johnson retires after 17 seasons
Denver – Defenseman Erik Johnson announced his retirement Wednesday after a 17-season career that was highlighted by a 2022 Stanley Cup title with the Colorado Avalanche.
Picked No. 1 in the 2006 NHL draft by St. Louis, Johnson was traded to the Avalanche as part of a blockbuster deal in 2011. He played in 1,023 regular-season games with the Blues, Avalanche, Buffalo Sabres and Philadelphia Flyers.
He finished with 95 goals, 253 assists, 1,717 blocks and 1,695 hits. Johnson missed the 2008-09 season with the Blues after suffering a serious knee injury in a golf cart accident when his foot got stuck under the accelerator pedal.
“After 18 incredible years in the NHL, I am retiring with a heart full of gratitude,” Johnson said in a statement.
The 37-year-old Johnson has long been a fan favorite in Denver, where he spent 14 of his 17 seasons. His most iconic moment, though, may have taken place away from the ice. He led the crowd in the singing of “All the Small Things,” by Blink-182 after the parade to celebrate Colorado hoisting the Stanley Cup. It was the theme song that season.
In his statement, he thanked organizations, teammates, coaches, staff members, family, friends and, of course, the fans.
“Your passion made every moment unforgettable,” Johnson said.
After spending portions of 14 seasons in Colorado – 2011 to 2022-23, along with a return late last season – Johnson trails only Adam Foote (17) for most seasons among Avalanche/Nordiques blueliners. His 731 regular-season games in an Avalanche sweater are also second only to Foote (967) among the franchise’s defensemen.
The player known as “EJ” is first in franchise history in blocked shots (1,373) and third in hits (1,288) among defensemen. The Bloomington, Minnesota, product leaves the NHL rink 25th on the most games played list among American-born defenseman in league history.
His first NHL game was with St. Louis on Oct. 4, 2007, against the then-Phoenix Coyotes. He had an assist on a goal by Keith Tkachuk.
His last regular-season game was with Colorado on April 13 at Anaheim. He scored an empty-net goal. Johnson also played in two games in the first-round series against Dallas, where the Avalanche lost in seven.
“Hockey has been my life, and I’m grateful for every second,” Johnson said. “I’m excited for what’s next and will always cherish this journey.”
Devils, Hughes agree on $63M contract
The New Jersey Devils have agreed to terms with young defenseman Luke Hughes on a seven-year contract worth $63 million.
General manager Tom Fitzgerald announced the deal Wednesday. Hughes will count $9 million against the salary cap through the 2031-32 NHL season – $1 million more annually than brother and No. 1 center Jack.
Luke Hughes was one of just a couple of restricted free agents left unsigned with opening night just about a week away. Anaheim over the weekend got Mason McTavish under contract, while Nashville’s Luke Evangelista still has nothing completed.
Devils training camp went on for nearly two weeks without Hughes, who missed all those sessions while his camp and the team were negotiating to keep him in New Jersey long term. He is expected to join the team for practice Thursday.
Hughes, who just turned 22, has 93 points in 155 regular-season games so far in his career. He also has two points in four playoff games while skating 20 minutes a night.
Jack Hughes hopes Luke gets a chance in his third full year in the league to run the top power-play unit and play big minutes.
“That’s so important for him because he’s got so much upside,” Jack Hughes said. “He’s a great skater. He’s a really good defender, too. I think he can be a true No. 1 for us.”
NHL players on the Olympic bubble
During the 4 Nations Face-Off earlier this year, Hockey Canada officials figured maybe three-quarters of the championship Canadian team would also play for Olympic gold at the Winter Games in February.
But with two additional spots available, the first few months of the NHL season are crucial to players on the Olympic bubble hoping to make the team and travel to Milan.
“Some players are going to rise up,” Team Canada general manager Doug Armstrong said. “There’s a lot of guys that didn’t make that team that are going to want to have a great October, November, December.”
Armstrong, U.S. GM Bill Guerin and the other federations have until Dec. 31 to submit provisional rosters of 22 skaters and three goaltenders. The so-called long lists of 45 skaters and five goaltenders to choose from is due Oct. 15.
Expect some serious variation for the Americans in Milan, looking to win Olympic gold for the first time since the “Miracle on Ice” in 1980.
“We can’t really run it back with the same team – we’ve got to see who’s playing well,” Guerin said. “Other guys are going to play their way on to the team. We had a bunch of guys that showed up for the world championships and produced our first gold medal there in 90-something years, and there are guys that have put themselves in a much better spot because of that. We just really have to start from scratch again and rebuild the team.”
Some candidates on the edge:
Clayton Keller
Keller was not just one of the players in his prime who went to worlds and helped deliver the first U.S. title there since 1933. Utah’s captain also wore the “C” and was a point-a-game producer. Getting left off the 4 Nations team fueled the 27-year-old center.
“It definitely motivated me, for sure, and I wasn’t going to just let it harp on me and have a bad rest of my season,” Keller said. “I think it did the opposite for me.”
Keller had 30 points in 26 games after the season resumed, followed by his success at worlds. Barring injury, he’s a good bet to play at the Olympics.
Robert Thomas
Injuries didn’t give Thomas a realistic shot to play for Canada at the 4 Nations, then he showed Armstrong – also his GM with St. Louis – what he could do when healthy. Thomas was the NHL’s top scorer after the break with 40 points, though he’s not satisfied with that success.
“I feel like most people look for people doing well, teams doing well – winners, and so I think that’s how you focus on it,” Thomas said. “Get your team off to a really good start, win a lot of games and put yourself in a good spot in the standings, and I think that should speak enough on your impact for the game.”
Thomas, 26, has an inside track to Milan but does not want it to be because he plays for Armstrong with the Blues.
“He’s got a job to do,” Thomas said. “He can’t pick favorites. His name’s on the line at the end of the day, so he’s got to pick the best team.”
Tage Thompson
Thompson was also on the U.S. world championship-winning team after he and Buffalo missed the playoffs. He had nine points, and his size at 6-foot-6 and 220 pounds makes him an ideal fit as Guerin and Co. build the team.
“I did feel like I should have been on the 4 Nations team,” Thompson said. “That gave me a bit of a chip on the shoulder the second half of the season and the summer of training and just kind of adds one more thing on your plate that you’re playing for.”
Thompson has never played in the NHL playoffs because the Sabres have the longest active drought at 14 seasons. Given management wanting to see how guys on the bubble handle pressure situations, going to worlds could give Thompson’s case a huge boost.
Macklin Celebrini
A couple of years ago, 2023 No. 1 pick Connor Bedard looked as though he might be the youngest player for Canada at the 2026 Games. Bedard would need to light the league on fire with Chicago out of the gate to get back in that discussion.
San Jose’s Macklin Celebrini, on the other hand, is another story. The 2024 No. 1 pick accepted Canada’s invite to worlds, played alongside Sidney Crosby and put himself right in the mix.
“I thought Celebrini had a fabulous tournament there coming in as a rookie, an 18-year-old,” Armstrong said.
It helps to have the seal of approval from Canada’s likely captain, who scored the golden goal in 2010 and was a big part of repeating as Olympic champs in 2014.
“I skated a little bit with him in the summer, too, in Halifax, and I want to say he’s even better than he was at worlds even over the couple months,” Crosby said. “I know he’s working hard. I’m sure this is something that’s on his radar, but yeah, I loved playing with him. I think that he’s just going to get better and better.”
Others on the bubble
Armstrong singled out Montreal’s Nick Suzuki and Washington’s Tom Wilson as other players not at the 4 Nations who played well in the second half last season. Wilson would give Canada a big, physical puck retriever with wining experience, while Suzuki would probably have to stand out above the crowd to be considered.
Jason Robertson and Cole Caufield are intriguing talents up front for the U.S., figuring Chris Kreider and Brock Nelson are probably not going to make it. Patrick Kane also has an outside chance as an elder statesman if he gets off to a strong start.
Rantanen settled in with Stars
Frisco, Texas – Mikko Rantanen can really settle in now, knowing where he will be for quite a while after going from Colorado to Carolina to Dallas in a six-week span last season.
“It was way different than all the other (seasons), because going through three teams and all the mental side of the things where you don’t know what’s going to happen and get surprised by a couple of things,” Rantanen said. “Hopefully, I don’t have go to go through that again.”
The winger who has averaged more than a point a game in his 10 NHL seasons isn’t going anywhere else anytime soon.
Rantanen has already become a big presence for the Stars. The 6-foot-4 Finn had a spectacular playoff performance after arriving last winter. He’s had a full offseason before the start of his $96 million, eight-year extension, the most expensive contract in franchise history that was part of the blockbuster deal at the trade deadline March 7 that sent him to Dallas.
“We know who he is. We’ve watched him, we’ve had to play against him. … He’s had a chance now to kind of debrief,” Stars general manager Jim Nill said at the start of training camp.
“Mental side of the sport, it’s easier when you know where you’re going to go or where you’re going to be,” said Rantanen, who turns 29 on Oct. 29. “When you’re feeling good mentally, I think it helps on the ice.”
More than scoring
While Rantanen provides plenty of points, Nill also looks forward to leadership from the player he describes as very focused, very dedicated, and driven to win.
“Tenth year in the league now, and so I think more with the experience, obviously try to be vocal in the locker room and stuff like that,” Rantanen said. “But it’s just natural. I’m not trying to overthink it. Try to do the same things I did in the previous teams and just be myself.”
Goalie Jake Oettinger said Rantanen is always with teammates, both on the ice and wanting to hang out as a group away from the rink.
“From the time he came here, it felt like he’d been on our team for a long time,” Oettinger said.
Rantanen was part of Colorado’s 2022 Stanley Cup title. Tyler Seguin is the only other current Stars player to win a Cup, and his came as a rookie with Boston in 2011.
“You get to see guys like that a few times in your career, not often. But you get to see behind doors what he’s like and how hard he works and what he can do in the gym, and just really his work ethic,” Seguin said. “He’s a leader in all those things. If you’re a kid, just kind of watch Mikko throughout his six hours at the rink.”
Early impact
Rantanen had 18 points (five goals) in 20 games at the end of the regular season for the Stars. He added 22 points (nine goals) in 18 playoff games, including a stretch with back-to-back hat tricks and being involved in 13 consecutive Dallas goals, an NHL playoff record.
In the Stars’ first-round series against the Avalanche, Rantanen had a four-point second period in Game 6, then in Game 7 finished off his former team with four points in the third period, including his first career postseason hat trick and an assist on the tiebreaking power-play goal for a series-clinching 4-2 win.
After being the first NHL player ever in the regular season or playoffs to have four-point periods in consecutive games, he opened the second round with a hat trick against Winnipeg.
Rantanen has 705 points (294 goals, 411 assists) in 652 career regular-season games, all but 33 of those with Colorado. He has another 123 points (43 goals) in 99 playoff games.
“It was was always hard to play against that guy,” said Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen, a fellow Finn.
West to East and back
Before being traded twice, Rantanen had been with Colorado for 9 1/2 seasons, making his NHL debut with the Avalanche just weeks before his 19th birthday. They traded him Jan. 24, but he played only 13 games for Carolina, which like the Avs was unable to work out a long-term deal before he could potentially become an unrestricted free agent.
Dallas did so with the most expensive contract in its franchise history while also giving up promising young forward Logan Stankoven, two first-round and two third-round picks.
New Stars coach Glen Gulutzan was on Edmonton’s staff the past seven seasons, and the past two the Oilers beat Dallas in the Western Conference Final. He told Rantanen how glad he was after the trade to the East, then how sad he was after the deal brought him back to the West.
“Then I got to coach Dallas, and now I’m happy that you’re here,” Gulutzan said, relaying the rest of that conversation.
October schedules
Thursday, Oct. 2
▶ Red Wings at Maple Leafs, 7
Friday, Oct. 3
▶ Windsor at Michigan State, 6
▶ Mercyhurst at Michigan, 7
▶ Michigan Tech at Minnesota, 8
▶ Notre Dame at NTDP U18, 7
▶ NTDP U17 at Madison, 8
Saturday, Oct. 4
▶ Maple Leafs at Red Wings, 7
▶ Mercyhurst at Michigan, 7
▶ NTDP U18 at Western Michigan, 6
▶ Northern Michigan at UMass, 7:30
▶ Michigan Tech at Minnesota, 8
▶ NTDP U17 at Green Bay, 4
Sunday, Oct. 5
▶ Northern Michigan at UMass, 4
Thursday, Oct. 9
▶ Canadiens at Red Wings, 7
▶ Western Michigan at Ferris State, 7
▶ NTDP U18 at University of Wisconsin, 8
Friday, Oct. 10
▶ New Hampshire at Michigan State, 7
▶ Michigan at Providence, 7
▶ Western Michigan at Ferris State, 7
▶ Northern Michigan at Ohio State, 6:30
▶ Muskegon at NTDP U17, 7
Saturday, Oct. 11
▶ Maple Leafs at Red Wings, 7
▶ New Hampshire at Michigan State, 7:30
▶ Michigan at Providence, 7
▶ Northern Michigan at Ohio State, 5
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