Portal:Ice hockey/News

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• In the first first period of a game between his team and the Washington Capitals, Colorado Avalanche centre Joe Sakic assists on a goal scored by teammate left wing Andrew Brunette to become the eleventh player in National Hockey League history to have totaled at least 1500 points in his career; in view of his having spent each of his eighteen NHL seasons with the Avalanche franchise (styled previously as the Quebec Nordiques), Sakic also becomes just the sixth player to have tallied all of at least 1500 points with one organization.
• At the Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, behind a third-period goal scored by forward Jamie Langenbrunner, the New Jersey Devils defeat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 2-1, to earn goaltender Martin Brodeur, who permits just one goal on across 38 shots, his 450th National Hockey League win; Brodeur, having one week thither displaced Terry Sawchuk for third place in the enumeration of goaltenders by career regular season wins, becomes, after Patrick Roy and Ed Belfour, just the third player in NHL history to have totalled at least 450 career wins.
• The 2006-2007 ECHL regular season, to be contested, as that of 2005-2006, amongst 25 teams, although with the Greenville Grrrowl, the 2002 Patrick Kelly Cup titlists, and the San Diego Gulls excluded in view of the franchises' having been dissolved in view of pecuniary concerns, and with the Texas Wildcatters, last of the league in 2004-2005 but absent from the 2005-2006 season in view of the unavailability of the Hurricane Rita-damaged Ford Arena, the home rink, situated in Beaumont, Texas, of the side, and the Cincinnati Cyclones, last of the league in the 2003-2004 season but absent thereafter in view of the temporary unavailability of the U.S. Bank Arena, included.
• The 89th season of the National Hockey League, the first since the 2003-2004 season in which an All-Star Game is to be contested and the first for which, consistent with the league's collective bargaining agreement, constituent teams may spend to a salary cap of $44 million, begins after an offseason in which 133 players leave the teams for which they last played in the 2005-2006 season via free agency and in which 58 players are exchanged between teams by trades.
• Right wing Tie Domi, having entered the National Hockey League in 1988 upon his being drafted from the Peterborough Petes of the Ontario Hockey League by the Toronto Maple Leafs and having thereafter played for the New York Rangers and Winnipeg Jets prior to his 1995 return to Toronto, announces his retirement; Domi, known often as an enforcer, leaves professional play having, over 1020 games, been assessed 3515 penalty minutes, more than any player save Dave Williams and Dale Hunter.
• Play of the 2006-2007 seasons of the three major junior ice hockey leagues—the Western, Quebec Major Junior, and Ontario Hockey Leagues—comprised by the Canadian Hockey League begins.
• The 2006-2007 season of the Elitserien, the premier Swedish ice hockey league, begins. The Malmö Redhawks, the 1992 and 1994 league champion, and the Skellefteå AIK, the 1978 Swedish champion but not an Elitserien constituent side since 1990 are promoted to the league from the HockeyAllsvenskan in view of their placings in the round-robin Kvalserien, whilst 2005-2006 participants Leksands IF and Södertälje SK, the former a 2004 Elitserien promotee and the latter a seven-time Swedish champion, are relegated to Allsvenskan play.
• American goaltender Rick DiPietro agrees to a fifteen-year, $65.7 million contract with the New York Islanders; it is, after that of twenty-one years between Canadian center Wayne Gretzky and the Edmonton Oilers agreed to in 1979, the longest-ever in the National Hockey League.
• The 2006-2007 season of the Russian Pro Hockey League, which comprises the Russian Hockey Super League and the Vysshaya Liga begins; the Molot-Prikamye Perm, having been relegated to the latter after the 2005-2006 season, and HC Spartak Moscow, five times a Soviet champion, which franchise is disbanded, do not play in the Super League, whilst the Amur Khabarovsk and Traktor Chelyabinsk, Vysshaya Liga promotees, join the League.
• Russian center Evgeni Malkin, a prospect of the Pittsburgh Penguins, having been selected by the National Hockey League (NHL) squad with the second overall pick in the 2004 NHL draft, having expressed a desire to leave Metallurg Magnitogorsk, agrees to a one-year contract with the Russian Hockey Super League side but subsequently avers that he was pressured to sign; Malkin unannouncedly leaves the Finnish training camp of Metallurg and appears in Los Angeles, California, United States, whereupon Metallurg announces its intention to pursue legal action against Malkin and the Penguins.
• Canadian center Steve Yzerman, a 20-year captain of the Detroit Red Wings of the National Hockey League, three-time Stanley Cup champion, and 10-time NHL all-star retires from professional hockey, finishing his career with the sixth-best-ever career points scored total. Yzerman nearly retired from the sport after undergoing an osteotomy prior to the 2002-03 season but returned in mid-April 2003 and claimed the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy.
• The 2006 National Hockey League entry draft is conducted at GM Place in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The Saint Louis Blues make defenceman Erik Johnson of the United States under-18 national team the first overall selection whilst the Pittsburgh Penguins choose center Jordan Staal of the Ontario Hockey League's Peterborough Petes with the second pick; Staal, who helped the Petes to the 2006 J. Ross Robertson Cup, becomes, after brothers Eric and Marc, the third Staal to be drafted into the NHL.

For more ice hockey news, see 2006 in ice hockey, current sports events and the Wikinews ice hockey portal.