Ovechkin’s Record Pace Debated: NHL European Tour Highlights

PRAGUE — If you didn’t realize hockey was right around the corner, you should have been in Czechia last week for the European version of the NHL’s player media tour.

Two dozen NHL players — including stars David Pastrnak, Tomas Hertl, Sebastian Aho, Juuse Saros, Martin Necas and up-and-comers like Juraj Slafkovsky, JJ Peterka, William Eklund, Samuel Ersson and Fabian Zetterlund — along with deputy commissioner Bill Daly were gathered in Prague to meet with European and North American media as the league begins its march toward the Oct. 4 opening of the regular season.

The Athletic will have features on many of the players in attendance in the coming days and weeks. To get the coverage started, today we have a meaty notebook of quicker hits from Prague.

Swiss stars play hockey on ‘Top of Europe’

Earlier this month, Nico Hischier, Nino Niederreiter, Pius Suter, Philipp Kurachev and Jonas Siegenthaler were among the NHL players who played members of Bern’s Swiss team 3,454 meters above sea level (11,332 feet) at Jungfraujoch — aka “Top of Europe” — in what was dubbed the “world’s highest hockey game.”

Previously, Rory McIlroy had hit golf balls on the glacier up top, and Roger Federer had played tennis, Tony Parker had played basketball and there has even been boxing there.

Nino Niederreiter, Nico Hischier, and Jonas Siegenthaler participated in the “World’s Highest Hockey Game” at 3,454 meters above sea level in Switzerland 👀🗻

The hockey game was played on a sunny, hot day, and “it was really hard to breathe,” said Niederreiter, a Winnipeg Jets forward.

Some players, like Suter and Siegenthaler, got to the top by helicopter. Others, like Hischier, journeyed via gondola and railway.

“It was a lot of fun and special,” said Suter, a Vancouver Canucks forward. “Very special. It was quite hard. Your head gets dizzy.”

Hischier, the New Jersey Devils captain, said the air was thin but the experience was amazing.

“I definitely don’t think we’ll ever do all that again, so we soaked it all in,” Hischier said.

Niederreiter was also humbled a few days later when he spent the day with Federer, who bid on and won his Swiss national team jersey for his “Golf for Africa” charity.

“He’s God for us,” said Niederreiter, who wouldn’t disclose what Federer paid for his jersey. “Too much.”

Rasmus Dahlin’s leadership shines through

Rasmus Dahlin, now 24, might have proved to Buffalo Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams and new coach Lindy Ruff that he deserves the captain’s “C” this summer.

In July, Dahlin organized a weeklong minicamp in Lausanne, Switzerland, for his European teammates. His North American teammates were welcome to join, something Owen Power and Mattias Samuelsson capitalized on.

A player-run camp for teammates that early in the summer is unheard of.

“Just taking charge of things we maybe all thought about, but at the end of the day, he’s the one that was like, ‘We’re gonna do it,’” said Peterka, 22. “It showed he’s taking the next step (as a leader).”

The camp was run by Peterka’s skills coach from Germany and Dahlin’s father from Sweden. Players spent two hours a day on the ice and lots of time in the gym. They hung out at the hotel watching the UEFA European Championship, went for dinners, went for a boat ride on the lake and played some “bad golf,” goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen said.

“It shows how the younger guys are ready to take the step, and they want to take the step to be leaders on a team,” Luukkonen said. “We want to make sure that we have the best chance to make the playoffs. It’s always easy to talk about that. We’re a young team and we want to make the playoffs, but it’s really starting to show that there’s a lot of the younger guys now doing these things — like Dahls making the camp happen.

“It’s a small thing, but it really shows how we want to compete and be a really better hockey team and make the playoffs.”

The Sabres have missed the playoffs 13 years in a row.

David Pastrnak on Bruins offseason moves

Looking tan, relaxed and fit after spending five days a week in the gym this summer while mixing in tennis and running, David Pastrnak arrived at the tour not long after marrying his longtime girlfriend, Rebecca Rohlsson. Several current and former Boston Bruins teammates attended the wedding in Croatia, including Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, Zdeno Chara, Charlie McAvoy, David Krejci, Taylor Hall, Charlie Coyle, Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman.

Pastrnak spends most of his offseason in Stockholm skating with the Nylander brothers, Rasmus Sandin and Jesper Bratt and largely avoids Prague because he can’t walk anywhere.

“We’re a small country,” he said, laughing.

David Pastrnak married his longtime girlfriend, Rebecca Rohlsson, this offseason. (Michael Russo / The Athletic)

He’s “very excited” about the Bruins additions this summer.

“Nikita (Zadorov), who is a big defenseman, I can’t wait to see him lay out some big hits this season,” Pastrnak said. “He seems like a perfect fit for the Bruins. And Elias (Lindholm) is a very good two-way centerman, which obviously the Bruins have had some pretty good two-way centermen. Elias scored 40 goals one year, too, so we know he can score. We have to make sure they feel as comfortable as we can and make sure the transition for them is super easy.”

Pastrnak, who followed up a 61-goal, 52-assist 2022-23 season with a 47-goal, 63-assist output in 2023-24, said that though he was always more of a playmaker growing up, he anticipates putting more in the net this season.

“My transfer to goal scorer (in the NHL) was surprising at first,” said Pastrnak, who worked hard on his shot velocity and shot placement throughout his career. “I’m very grateful. It’s hard to score in this league, so I don’t take it for granted. Last year, I was more playmaker and shot way less than previous years, but that was just the way our team was built last year.”

Teammates on Ovi’s record chase

Martin Fehervary and Rasmus Sandin, representing the Washington Capitals, had a funny back-and-forth when asked when they’d guess teammate Alex Ovechkin would break Wayne Gretzky’s record of 894 goals.

The 38-year-old is 41 away.

“If I had to be honest, I’d say he’d go 25 this year and 20 next year,” Fehervary said. “So I would say like next season December.”

That caused Sandin to quickly turn his head in surprise

“Next year December?” Sandin asked. “I don’t know with this guy.

“He could score like 42 this season. I’m just going to say … earlier.”

Rasmus Sandin and Martin Fehervary had differing estimates on Alex Ovechkin’s record timeline. (Michael Russo / The Athletic)

After a tough start to last season, Ovechkin finished with 31 goals — scoring 23 in his final 36 games.

The Capitals, who made the playoffs last season before being swept by the New York Rangers, had a busy offseason, adding Pierre-Luc Dubois, Jakob Chychrun, Logan Thompson and Andrew Mangiapone.

“I’m super excited,” Sandin said. “I think we made some nice upgrades, too. We got Chychrun and Matt Roy on defense. I think our back end’s really solid. We got a new goalie, too, in Logan. And then obviously up front. We struggled a little bit last year with scoring goals. We won a lot of tight matches. It’s a good thing for defensively, but hopefully we can get more goals.”

Nico Hischier on Devils bouncing back

After the New York Rangers were eliminated in the 2023 playoffs, expectations ratcheted up last season in New Jersey. It turned out to be one mammoth disappointment after losing Dougie Hamilton early and getting shoddy goaltending throughout.

Hischier is confident the New Jersey Devils will leave that behind with Hamilton’s return from a pectoral injury, plus the additions of goalie Jacob Markstrom and defensemen Brett Pesce and Brenden Dillon.

Nico Hischier thinks the Devils will rebound in 2024-25. (Michael Russo / The Athletic)

Plus, there’s new coach Sheldon Keefe.

“We’re all excited to have him,” Hischier said. “What he’s done with the Toronto organization, still pretty impressive. So he knows how to win games, how to get into the playoffs consistently, and that’s something we’ve got to aim for right now. He obviously coached a good team in Toronto, and we’re just hoping that he can teach us things, give us lessons and get us ready for a long season.

“Definitely wasn’t an easy season at all. Lot of turbulence throughout the year, a lot of injuries as well, so just wasn’t clicking. We just never really were able to get going. Consistency wasn’t there, but for me, last year’s last year, and I’m already looking forward.”

Juraj Slafkovsky, Erik Cernak on missing Olympic qualifier

Both Juraj Slafkovsky, the Montreal Canadiens’ budding young star, and Erik Cernak, the Tampa Bay Lightning’s veteran defenseman, confirmed it was their NHL teams who influenced the decision for them not to take part in the 2026 Olympic qualifier Thursday through Sunday in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Like the Minnesota Wild’s Marco Rossi, who was asked not to take part for Austria, Slafkovsky and Cernak said Slovakia Ice Hockey Federation GM Miroslav Satan had conversations with their GMs.

“You can get hurt,” Cernak said. “Anything can happen. You would want to be there, but at the same time, you have to look forward to your season and training camp and getting ready for the new season. Hopefully, the guys can do it and we can go to the Olympics. I’m confident they’re gonna do it. The group is not as hard as the other ones.”

Three groups of four teams are playing to determine the final qualifiers for the 2026 Olympics in Milan. Slovakia and Austria are with Hungary and Kazakhstan. Latvia, Ukraine, Slovenia and France are in Riga, Latvia. And Norway, Denmark, Great Britain and Japan are in Aalborg, Denmark.

“We pretty much decided it would be better if I don’t go and get ready for the season and show up for the camp and don’t get injured,” said Slafkovsky, who hopes to pick up where he left off this season (16 goals and 35 points in his final 40 games) and is excited by the recent acquisition of the Columbus Blue Jackets’ Patrik Laine.

Erik Cernak on Steven Stamkos leaving

Cernak always felt Steven Stamkos and the Lightning would find a way to get a contract done. In the end, Stamkos signed with the Nashville Predators and was replaced by Jake Guentzel in free agency.

“I mean, to be honest, it was shocking,” Cernak said. “You would never think a captain like Stammer would leave the organization or sign somewhere else. But hockey is a business, and it was, it was shocking. It’s hard to talk about it because he’s a good friend of mine. He was the main leader in the locker room.

“He was making sure when I got to the NHL I was comfortable, I was part of the team and all this stuff. So it’s hard to see him go. But at the same time, he did the best thing (that) he could do for him and his family, and now we just have to look forward to a new group this season.”

Teuvo Teravainen excited to return to Chicago

Eight years after being traded to the Carolina Hurricanes, 2015 Stanley Cup champion Teuvo Teravainen returns to the Chicago Blackhawks on a three-year, $16.2 million contract. It’ll be weird, he said, without Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Artemi Panarin and Duncan Keith there, but he’s excited to play with a young core highlighted by Calder Trophy winner Connor Bedard and believes this will be the beginning of Chicago adding and adding.

He hopes to still be part of it once the team transitions toward a return to consistent winning.

It all starts with Bedard.

“A young player like him is kind of a little bit of the same spot when I was a young player and going to Chicago, and I had all the great players there helping me out,” Teravainen said. “So maybe I’ll try to help him a little bit, help him out. I’ve seen all the highlights and stuff, and he’s a great player. So it’s gonna be nice to get to know him a little bit and hopefully play with him also.”

His longtime teammate and Finnish countryman with the Canes, Sebastian Aho, was thrilled Teravainen got to return to Chicago: “It’s the sad part of the business, but I’m happy he’ll get a fresh start there.”

Karel Vejmelka’s memories of Arizona

Utah goalie Karel Vejmelka was speaking a day before he would fly to Phoenix to pack up his life and begin the drive to Salt Lake City and his franchise’s new chapter.

“It’s great experience to be part of something brand new, like a new team, because that doesn’t happen pretty often,” he said. “We were there for two days right after the season. We saw the facility and stuff, and it was a great time together to see what we have to expect. I’m really excited about the city and fans because that crowd was amazing when we stand together in front of them the first day.”

Karel Vejmelka is excited about a new chapter for his franchise. (Michael Russo / The Athletic)

There have been players who have said it got old playing in the 4,500-seat Mullett Arena and they felt less than an NHLer, but Vejmelka said that wasn’t the case for him.

“For me personally, I wasn’t, like, it was not bad at all because I still play NHL,” he said. “I didn’t care about the facility and stuff like that because I know what the conditions are here in Czech, and when I compare it in North America or Arizona, it’s still one of the best facilities if it was in Czech. So it wasn’t bad at all for me. I enjoyed every day over there. I heard a lot of bad things from my teammates because they played previously in different teams … but for me, I just enjoyed hockey. I will remember just in the best memories.”