NHL News: Sean Monahan traded, NHL players return to the Olympics, and more!

The 29-year-old was selected with the sixth-overall pick in the 2013 draft by the Flames and spent nine seasons with the team. In those nine seasons, he scored 212 goals and 462 points in 656 games, before being traded along with a conditional 2025 first-round pick to create cap space.

Monahan struggled with health in his first season with the Canadiens, but was an efficient point-getter, scoring six goals and 17 points in 25 games. The centre re-signed with the Canadiens on a one-year, $1.985 million deal. To his credit, Monahan has had a successful season in 2023-24, scoring 13 goals and 35 points in 49 games, his highest total since 2019-20 with just under half the rest of the season remaining.

National Hockey League players returning to the Olympics

On Friday morning, Chris Johnston of TSN reported that NHL players will return to the Olympic games in 2026, as well as in 2030. It was later confirmed by the NHL, NHLPA and IIHF at a joint press conference.

It’s been a hot minute, as the kids call it, since the NHL players went to the Olympics. The last time was in 2014 in Sochi, Russia, where Canada took home the gold medal. There were only two Flames that went to the Olympics: defenceman Ladislav Šmíd for Czechia and netminder Reto Berra for Switzerland.

It’ll be fun to watch Connor McDavid – only because he’s Canadian – as well as several other players make their Olympic debuts in two years. It’s been far too long.

The Los Angeles Kings fire head coach Todd McLellan

As announced by the club, the Los Angeles Kings have fired head coach Todd McLellan. Jim Hiller takes over as the interim coach.

This isn’t too much of a surprise, as the Kings have a 3-8-6 record since December 28. After their win on Dec. 27, the Kings had a 20-8-4 record with 44 points and were 11 points clear of the Edmonton Oilers with the same number of games played.

Fast forward to now, and the Kings have a 23-5-10 record with 56 points and occupy the first Wild Card spot. They are just three points behind the Oilers, but the McDavid-led team has three games in hand. The Kings were seven points clear of the “outside looking in”, but now just have two points on the Nashville Predators with three games in hand.

McLellan was the Kings’ coach for five seasons, amassing a record of 164-130-44 in 338 games played. He helped the Kings from a seventh-placed finish in the Pacific Division in 2019-20 to two consecutive third place finishes in the Pacific Division in 2021-22 and 2022-23.

The 56-year-old coach has been at the helm of three NHL teams, all of which were Pacific Division teams. He spent seven seasons with the San Jose Sharks, before heading to the Oilers for five seasons, and then finally the Kings.

Maybe he ends up with the Anaheim Ducks next, or something.