5:25 PM ET Associated Press TORONTO — Pat Stapleton, a longtime NHL defenseman who famously kept an air of mystery over whether he possessed the puck from the winning goal of the 1972 Summit Series, has died. He was 79. The Strathroy Rockets, a Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League team with which Stapleton was involved,

4:52 PM ET Cities and venues across North America have reached out to the NHL to pitch themselves as potential hosts for neutral-site playoff games, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told ESPN on Friday. “We do have people putting together the comprehensive laundry list of what we would need from facilities and evaluating some facilities

4:26 PM ET Associated Press LOS ANGELES — Defenseman Kurtis MacDermid has agreed to a two-year, $1.75 million contract extension through the 2021-22 season with the Los Angeles Kings. The Kings announced the deal Friday. MacDermid has become a regular on the blue line for the Kings this season, scoring three goals with five assists

1:03 AM ET Associated Press The man at the heart of the Maple Leaf Gardens sexual abuse scandal has died. Gordon Stuckless died Thursday night at a hospital in Hamilton after a brain hemorrhage Tuesday, lawyer Ari Goldkind said. Stuckless was in his early 70s. Stuckless was sentenced in 2016 to 6 1/2 years in

6:52 PM ET Associated Press Carolina Hurricanes president and general manager Don Waddell said All-Star defenseman Dougie Hamilton, who broke his left leg in January, would be ready to play if the season resumes. Hamilton needed surgery and had been listed as out indefinitely before the season was suspended amid the coronavirus pandemic. In a

3:51 PM ET General manager Don Waddell said that the Carolina Hurricanes are preparing for home games with a capacity that’s intentionally limited due to the coronavirus pandemic. “We have multiple plans. We have a task force that we’ve put in place internally to talk about all of these options. One of them is that

8:32 PM ET Ottawa Senators coach D.J. Smith said on Wednesday that the members of the organization who tested positive for the coronavirus have recovered. “The good thing is that everyone that had it didn’t have horrible symptoms [like] what we’re seeing on TV and [with] some of the people that have really struggled,” Smith

7:30 AM ET NHL players are creatures of habit, living a regimented life of training, nutrition, rest and recovery. Their bodies are machines built to withstand an 82-game regular-season grind and whatever postseason action their team earns beyond it. What Gary Roberts fears is that these machines aren’t built for several months of home confinement,

2:22 PM ET Associated Press Alexis Lafrenière, as expected, maintained the top spot in the NHL Central Scouting Bureau’s final ranking of draft-eligible prospects released Wednesday. What remains uncertain for the 18-year-old Rimouski Oceanic forward and hundreds of fellow prospects is learning when and by whom they will be selected. Forward Quinton Byfield and defenseman

9:36 AM ET Florence Schelling has been named the general manager of SC Bern of the National League in Switzerland. At just 31, she is the first female GM in top-level men’s professional hockey. “In the evaluation process, we ended up with Florence Schelling,” SC Bern CEO Marc Luthi told Berner Zeitung. “We came to