Revisiting the biggest storylines from the 2019-20 NHL season

The NHL has played shortened seasons in recent years, but it was almost always because a lockout delayed the start (1994-95 and 2012-13 seasons). This time it was a global pandemic that halted the season after teams had played between 68 and 72 games. The result of that is a restart (beginning in August) that will see 24 teams in the playoffs and a best-of-five play-in round, with all games played in two hub cities. There will be a lot of questions as to how the league will successfully pull this off. 

In late November, on a random night of regular-season hockey, former NHL forward Akim Aliu revealed to the hockey world that his former AHL coach (and at the time Calgary Flames head coach), Bill Peters,  had referred to him as a racial slur on several occasions. Not long after that, another of Peters' former players (Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Michal Jordan) revealed he was the target of physical abuse from the coach. The Flames immediately removed Peters from behind the bench, resulting in him resigning. 

Forget the 2019-20 season: This might be one of the most improbable NHL stories of the decade. On Feb. 22 the Carolina Hurricanes had to turn to 42-year-old emergency goalie David Ayres — a Zamboni driver by day — to play goalie in their game against the Maple Leafs. With James Reimer and Petr Mrazek both injured during the game, Ayres played the final 28 minutes of the game and stopped eight out of 10 shots to claim his first NHL victory in a 6-3 Hurricanes win.  

The Vegas Golden Knights are the most successful expansion team of the modern NHL era. They have qualified for the playoffs in their first two years, went to a Stanley Cup Final and ended up finishing the 2019-20 season as one of the top teams in the Western Conference. That is what made the decision to fire coach Gerard Gallant midseason so shocking. Yes, they were off to an inconsistent start, but every sign pointed to them still being an elite team that just needed to shake off some early goaltending struggles. The front office did not see it that way and dumped Gallant to replace him with Peter DeBoer, the former coach of their fiercest rival, the San Jose Sharks. Strange times. 

Before the 2019-20 resumed, the NHL conducted its draft lottery for the 2020 class in early July. The winner? To be determined by a second lottery! Because the NHL typically has 15 teams in its draft lottery, and because only seven teams were not taking part in the restart, they wanted to keep the same lottery odds as previous years, meaning that they had to put eight "placeholder" teams into the lottery. If one of those placeholder spots won, a second lottery would be held involving the losing teams in the play-in round (each having a 12.5 percent chance of winning). That means, in theory, the top overall pick this year could go to a team like Pittsburgh, Toronto, Edmonton, Chicago, Nashville, New York or some other team that would have otherwise had almost no chance of winning. 

The greatest goal scorer to ever play in the NHL (yes, it is true) rocketed up the all-time goal leaderboard this season, climbing to eighth on the all-time list. He scored his 700th career goal and inched closer to Wayne Gretzky's all-time record (894). Had it not been for the season pause he would have moved up a couple of more spots and claimed his ninth 50-goal season. By the end of next season he could find himself as high as fourth on the list. With 48 goals this season he claimed at least a share (he tied David Pastrnak) of the single-season goal scoring crown for the ninth time in his career and the third year in a row. 

The San Jose Sharks have been a model of consistency for more than a decade now, always in the playoffs and always in the mix as a Stanley Cup contender. Just last year they were in the Western Conference Final, two games away from what could have been their second Stanley Cup Final appearance in four years. Even with the free agency departures of Joe Pavelski and Joonas Donskoi they were still returning a team that — on paper — should have been a contender. Instead, they ended up being the worst team in the Western Conference and completely fell apart out of nowhere. Goaltending was an issue, they struggled to replace the offense they lost with Pavelski and Donskoi and some young players internally did not take a step forward. Making matters worse, their first round draft pick belonged to the Ottawa Senators as a result of the Erik Karlsson trade. A miserable year across the board. 

It was something that probably needed to happen. After a string of first round playoff exits and a brutal start to the regular season (where missing the playoffs seemed possible) the Maple Leafs made the decision to part ways with Babcock. It just seemed to be a bad fit as Babcock seemed determine to take one of the most talented rosters in the league and asked the players to try and win every game 1-0. At this point Babcock's reputation exceeds the actual results his teams have achieved for more than a decade. His Toronto tenure ended with the team never getting beyond the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. 

In the span of one year, the Minnesota Wild completely overhauled their hockey operations department. Just before the start of the season they fired general manager Paul Fenton after just one year on the job (and after he had already overseen the draft and free agency) and replaced him with Bill Guerin. During the season, they fired coach Bruce Boudreau. A new GM making a coaching change is hardly strange, but what made the Boudreau firing a bit of an eye opener is that he is one of the most successful coaches in the league and it came at a time when the Wild were starting to get on a roll and turn their season around. 

It started with the star defenseman taking a leave of absence at the beginning of the season. It ended with the two sides mutually agreeing to part ways with a contract termination in February. Byfuglien was with the Jets since their arrival from Atlanta and has consistently been one of the league's most productive blue liners. Injuries were reportedly a big factor in his decision to stay away from the team and when combined with his age that does leave some question as to how much he has left in the tank. But if he decides to play again in the NHL, there will be no shortage of teams lining up for him. 

With his contract coming to a close at the end of this season, it was a given that the New Jersey Devils had a big decision to make regarding Hall. When the team turned out to be a massive disappointment on the ice, the decision seemed to be an easy one: trade him. What was surprising was the fact it was the Arizona Coyotes that ended up being the landing spot. He will get a chance to play in the postseason with the Coyotes given the modified playoff format for this season, but it remains to be seen what his future holds. This is his last chance at a big pay day in free agency, and after spending almost his entire career on non-playoff teams, the opportunity to find a legitimate contender has to be enticing. 

After years of disappointment, the Edmonton Oilers finally exceeded expectations this season and played their way into a playoff position. Leading that charge was the two-headed monster of Connor McDavid and Draisaitl. Before the season pause, Draisaitl was running away with the scoring title (110 points) and held a 13-point lead over the next closest player. The way he carried his own line (away from McDavid) and carried the offense when McDavid was sidelined due to injury made him one of the top MVP contenders in the league. 

The New Jersey Devils were one of the champions of the offseason thanks to their moves to land P.K. Subban, Nikita Gusev, Wayne Simmonds, the No. 1 overall pick (Jack Hughes) and the return of a healthy Taylor Hall. Expectations were through the roof at the start of the season. As it turns out, expectations were a little too high. The team never addressed the goaltending issue, and everything else seemed to fall apart around that as New Jersey was never able to get on the right track. The Devils blew several big leads early in the season got into an early hole they were never able to get out of. The result: a new general manager, a new head coach and Hall being traded to Arizona. 

Henrik Lundqvist has been the face of the New York Rangers organization for more than a decade. He is one of the best goalies of his era, has constantly elevated the Rangers into a contender and has been a rock in their crease. But his age, combined with the emergence of two young goalies in New York (Igor Shesterkin and Alexandar Georgiev) helped make him an afterthought toward the end of the 2019-20 season. He rarely played after the new years holiday and was consistently the odd man out in a three-headed goalie rotation. He still has a year left on his contract, but his future is very much in doubt. 

The NHL coaching carousel was in full swing this season and it made a stop in Nashville, where the Predators replaced Peter Laviolette with John Hynes. The Predators did not meet expectations this season due to goaltending issues and poor special teams play, and it was Laviolette who ended up paying the price. With steady goaltending, it is still a team that could make some noise in the playoffs. 

Of all the coaching changes that took place this season, the most confusing one (at the time) was Dallas' decision to part ways with Jim Montgomery. At the time, the Stars were climbing the standings and there was a ton of secrecy on why the Stars fired him. Montgomery eventually revealed that he had checked into rehab to help fight alcohol abuse while adding that the Stars made the appropriate call to fire him. 

After the free agency departures of Artemi Panarin, Sergei Bobrovsky and Matt Duchene there was an expectation that the Columbus Blue Jackets were going to be in for a brutal season — especially with no clear cut solution in net. Then once the season started they were absolutely hammered by injuries all year. None of that prevented them from falling out of the playoff race, and thanks to some surprisingly great goaltending from the duo of Joonas Korpisalo and Elvis Merzlikins, they remained in the playoff hunt right up until the season went on pause. 

The Sabres need a rebuild from their rebuild. Despite having one of the league's best players in Jack Eichel, the Sabres have completely failed to build anything resembling a contending roster around him and remain one of the Eastern Conference's bottom feeders. What makes the 2019-20 season so disappointing is that even after winning nine of their first 12 games, and even with a 24-team playoff format, they were still not good enough to snap their now nine-year postseason drought. It all resulted in the firing of general manager Jason Botterill. The general manager keeps changing. The coaches keep changing. The only thing that remains the same is the ownership. Might be time to look there.

It is a great time to be a Bruins fan. After coming within just a single game of winning the Stanley Cup a year ago, the Bruins came back this season even stronger and completely dominated the NHL regular season, running away with the Eastern Conference and Presidents' Trophy races. They compiled a 44-14-12 record in 70 games, boasted one of the league's most dominant lines (David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron) and continued to have one of the best goaltending situations in the league with Tuukka Rask and Jaroslav Halak. 

It turned out to be the year of the defensemen in the Calder Trophy race, as Colorado's Cale Makar, Vancouver's Quinn Hughes, New York's Adam Fox and Pittsburgh's John Marino all excelled this season. Makar and Hughes are the two clear front-runners, and there does not seem to be a right or wrong selection when it comes to the two of them. They have both been impact players and have superstardom in their future. Chicago's Dominik Kubalik is the top rookie forward, but he may not have done enough to top the young blue liners.