With the start of the NHL season Wednesday, the pressure is building for a number of players, coaches and executives. Here's a look at 13 who could be feeling the pressure this season:
Mathew Barzal, C, New York Islanders -- Barzal won the Calder Trophy as the NHL's top rookie last season, but he did it as a second-line center. With John Tavares in Toronto, Barzal graduates to the first line, meaning that more will be expected of him; he'll also face tougher defensive matchups and have less help. That's asking a lot of a second-year player on a team that has missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs in back-to-back seasons and lost its longtime captain.
Julien BriseBois, general manager, Tampa Bay Lightning -- Steve Yzerman surprised the hockey world when he stepped down as general manager of the Tampa Bay Lightning. BriseBois, Yzerman's longtime assistant, was named as his replacement and said he expects "business as usual." BriseBois inherits one of the NHL's top teams and will try to do something Yzerman couldn't do in his eight seasons as GM: win the Stanley Cup. Not that the Lightning haven't been close: Tampa Bay lost to the Chicago Blackhawks in the 2015 Final, then were defeated in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final in 2016 and 2018.
Scott Darling, G, Carolina Hurricanes -- The Hurricanes have the potential to be one of the NHL's most improved teams, as long as Darling plays like the goaltender they thought they were getting when they signed him to a four-year contract in 2017. He excelled in a backup role during his three seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks but struggled in his first chance as a starter (13-21-7, 3.18 goals-against average, .888 save percentage). The Hurricanes need Darling to step up if they hope to make the playoffs for the first time since 2009; if he doesn't, he could lose his job to newcomer Petr Mrazek.
Jack Eichel, C, Buffalo Sabres -- The No. 2 pick (behind Connor McDavid) in the 2015 NHL Draft changed back to No. 9, the number he wore while winning the Hobey Baker Award as the nation's top college player with Boston University in 2014-15. Eichel wore No. 15 in his first three seasons with Buffalo, when he finished with 56, 57 and 64 points for a team that missed the postseason each time, extending its non-playoff streak to seven seasons. The additions of defenseman Rasmus Dahlin (No. 1 pick in the 2018 NHL Draft), forward Jeff Skinner (trade with Hurricanes) and goaltender Carter Hutton (free agent signing), have raised expectations in Buffalo, but the Sabres need a breakout season from Eichel, their No. 1 center, to have a chance to end their playoff drought.
Jarmo Kekalainen, general manager, Columbus Blue Jackets -- Kekalainen has built the Blue Jackets into a team that has made back-to-back trips to the playoffs and is expected to do even more this season. But he also faces the dilemma of what to do about his two best players; forward Artemi Panarin and goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky can become unrestricted free agents on July 1. If he can't get them signed, Kekalainen faces the question of whether to trade them during the season or keep them in hopes of making a long playoff run but risk losing one or both for nothing.
Ilya Kovalchuk, LW, Los Angeles Kings -- The Kings, who have one of the oldest core groups in the NHL, hope that Kovalchuk, 35, has something left after spending the past five seasons in the Kontinental Hockey League, where he was the top scorer last season. Kovalchuk had 816 points (417 goals, 399 assists) in 11 NHL seasons with the Atlanta Thrashers and New Jersey Devils before going home to Russia. On a team that has eight players from its Cup-winning teams of 2012 and 2014 but has won one playoff game since its second championship season, Kovalchuk is expected to be an elite finisher who can make the Kings a contender again.
Max Pacioretty, LW, Vegas Golden Knights -- In one sense, there should be less pressure on Pacioretty, who goes from being the captain of the Montreal Canadiens to the second-line left wing on a second-year team. But the Golden Knights traded for Pacioretty on Sept. 10 and signed him to a four-year, $28 million contract extension the next day with the expectation that, at a minimum, he will help them remain among the NHL's top teams -- and ideally become the fastest Stanley Cup winner in modern NHL history after they lost the Final to the Washington Capitals in their first season. They need the player who averaged more than 35 goals per season from 2013-14 through 2016-17, not the one who slumped to 17 goals last season.
Bill Peters, coach, Calgary Flames - Peters, a native of Three Hills, Alberta, less than 60 miles from Calgary, left the Hurricanes on April 20 after four non-playoff seasons then was hired three days later by the Flames, who missed the playoffs after fading down the stretch. There's more talent in Calgary than there was in Carolina; however, there's also more pressure to win as coach of a team that has missed the playoffs in seven of the past nine seasons and has won one playoff series since advancing to Game 7 of the Cup Final in 2004.
Joel Quenneville, coach, Chicago Blackhawks -- It's hard to believe that a coach who is No. 2 all-time in victories and has won the Stanley Cup three times in the past nine seasons could be under any pressure. But Quenneville's seat has gotten warmer after the Blackhawks were swept in the Western Conference First Round in 2017 and failed to make the playoffs last season. Team president John McDonough's mandate that "We need everybody to do better" could indicate that a bad start after the first losing season of his 21-year NHL coaching career might spell the end of Quenneville's time in Chicago.
Todd Rierden, coach, Washington Capitals -- All Rierden has to do in his first NHL coaching job is follow in the footsteps of Barry Trotz, who guided the Capitals to the first Stanley Cup championship since they entered the NHL in 1974. Trotz resigned after he and the Capitals were unable to reach agreement on a new contract and signed with the Islanders. Rierden, an assistant and then an associate coach under Trotz, will have to make sure the Capitals don't suffer from a Stanley Cup hangover while putting his own stamp on a team coming off a championship.
Pekka Rinne, G, Nashville Predators -- Rinne helped the Predators win the Presidents' Trophy as the NHL's best regular-season team last season; he also won the Vezina Trophy after finishing second once and third twice in the previous seven seasons. But Rinne didn't bring that level of play into the playoffs and was pulled in Game 7 of Nashville's loss to the Winnipeg Jets in Game 7 of the Western Conference Second Round. The Predators are loaded again, but Rinne turns 36 on Nov. 3 and is entering the final season of his contract. That puts his future with one of the NHL's top teams in question, especially with 23-year-old backup Juuse Saros waiting in the wings.
Cam Talbot, G, Edmonton Oilers -- Talbot's heroics were a key to Edmonton's return to the playoffs in 2017. But a workload of 86 games (73 regular season, 13 playoffs) the previous season might have taken a toll in 2017-18, as did the Oilers' lack of a solid backup. Talbot allowed an NHL-high 188 goals, and his goals-against average rose to 3.02 from 2.39. He has to return to the form he showed in 2016-17 (and get a more manageable workload) for the Oilers to have a chance to bounce back this season.
John Tavares, C, Toronto Maple Leafs -- Tavares opted to leave the Islanders after nine seasons and sign as a free agent with the team he grew up rooting for. But with a big contract (seven years, $77 million) come big expectations; that's especially true when it means playing for your home team, which hasn't won the Stanley Cup since 1967. Though Tavares and Auston Matthews give the Maple Leafs one of the NHL's best one-two combinations at center, he'll be under the spotlight on a team that hasn't won a playoff series since 2004 but is expected to contend for the Cup after being eliminated in the first round in each of the past two seasons.
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