Toronto – The Ontario Hockey League announced today that forward Ryan Kujawinski of the Kingston Frontenacs is the OHL Player of the Week for the week ending Sept. 30 after recording five points in two games scoring twice with three assists and a plus-minus rating of plus-2.

Kujawinski helped lift the Frontenacs to a pair of victories over the weekend beginning Friday night, where he picked up three assists as second star when the club erased a 5-3 third period deficit to comeback and beat the Erie Otters 6-5 in overtime.
On Sunday afternoon, he received first-star honours with two goals in a 5-4 win over the Niagara IceDogs giving the Frontenacs their best start to a season since 1997-98 with a perfect 3-0-0-0 record as the only undefeated team remaining in the OHL.

Kujawinski, a 17-year-old from Iroqouis Falls, ON, is playing in his second OHL season. Eligible for the 2013 NHL Entry Draft, Kujawinski was a first-round pick of the Sarnia Sting in the 2011 OHL Priority Selection, but finished his rookie campaign with the Frontenacs where he scored 15 goals and 15 assists for 30 points in 30 games.

Also considered for the award this week was Columbus Blue Jackets prospect Boone Jenner of the Oshawa Generals who scored four goals and four assists for eight points in three games, and Montreal Canadiens prospect Brady Vail of the Windsor Spitfires who picked up three goals and four assists for seven points in three games.
In goal, Detroit Red Wings prospect Jake Paterson of the Saginaw Spirit posted a 1-0-1-0 record including a shutout victory with a goals-against-average of 1.46 and save percentage of .955.

- From OHL news release

NEW YORK — The Edmonton Oilers won the 2012 Scotiabank NHL Draft Lottery today and gained the first drafting position for the first round of the 2012 NHL Draft.

The Oilers own the first overall selection for the third consecutive year. This is the second time the Oilers have won the lottery. In 2010, Edmonton won the lottery, retaining the top pick in the Draft, which they used to select Taylor Hall. Last year, the Oilers again retained the first pick, which they used to select Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, when the New Jersey Devils won the lottery and moved from 8th position to 4th.

The Oilers had the second-greatest percentage likelihood, 18.8%, that one of the numbered sequences assigned to them would be the winning combination. Under the system, only the five teams with the fewest points had the chance to win the first overall selection; no team could move up more than four spots and no team could move backward more than one.

The Columbus Blue Jackets, Montreal Canadiens, New York Islanders and Toronto Maple Leafs own the second, third, fourth and fifth drafting positions, respectively, in the first round.

The order of selection for the first 14 drafting positions in the first round, only, of the 2012 NHL Draft is as follows:

1. Edmonton Oilers
2. Columbus Blue Jackets
3. Montreal Canadiens
4. New York Islanders
5. Toronto Maple Leafs
6. Anaheim Ducks
7. Minnesota Wild
8. Carolina Hurricanes
9. Winnipeg Jets
10. Tampa Bay Lightning
11. Washington Capitals (from Colorado)
12. Buffalo Sabres
13. Dallas Stars
14. Calgary Flames

The remaining positions are determined by the results of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The drawing was conducted at the NHL’s New York office and the results were televised live on the 2012 Scotiabank NHL Draft Lottery on TSN in Canada and NBC Sports Network in the U.S. The program aired live on TSN Mobile TV and can also be viewed on demand on TSN.ca.

Fourteen balls, numbered 1 to 14, were placed in a lottery machine. The machine expelled four balls, forming a series of numbers. The four-digit series resulting from the expulsion of the balls was matched against a probability chart that divided the possible combinations among the 14 participating clubs. The chart showed that the Oilers had been assigned the numbers (2-10-11-13) that were expelled.

The 2012 Scotiabank NHL Draft Lottery is a weighted system to give the teams that finished with the fewest points during the regular season the greatest chance of having their combination selected. The Columbus Blue Jackets finished the regular season with the fewest points in the League (65) and were assigned the greatest number of combinations, representing a 25% likelihood that their combination would emerge. Oilers were assigned 18.8% of the combinations, followed by Montreal (14.2%), the Islanders (10.7%) and Toronto (8.1%). The remaining teams had the following chances: 6.2%, 4.7%, 3.6%, 2.7%, 2.1%, 1.5%, 1.1%, 0.8% and 0.5%.

The 2012 NHL Draft will take place at CONSOL Energy Center in Pittsburgh. The first round is on Friday, June 22 and the subsequent rounds take place Saturday, June 23.

Results of Previous Draft Drawings

Year Selected Effect On Draft Order Player Selected
1995 Los Angeles Moved from 7th to 3rd D Aki Berg
1996 Ottawa Retained 1st selection D Chris Phillips
1997 Boston Retained 1st selection C Joe Thornton
1998 Tampa Bay Moved from 3rd to 1st via trades C Vincent Lecavalier
1999 Chicago Moved from 8th to 4th RW Pavel Brendl *
2000 NY Islanders Moved from 5th to 1st G Rick DiPietro
2001 Atlanta Moved from 3rd to 1st LW Ilya Kovalchuk
2002 Florida Moved from 3rd to 1st LW Rick Nash **
2003 Florida Moved from 4th to 1st G Marc-Andre Fleury ***
2004 Washington Moved from 3rd to 1st LW Alex Ovechkin
2005 Pittsburgh n/a C Sidney Crosby
2006 St. Louis Retained 1st selection D Erik Johnson
2007 Chicago Moved from 5th to 1st RW Patrick Kane
2008 Tampa Bay Retained 1st selection C Steven Stamkos
2009 NY Islanders Retained 1st selection C John Tavares
2010 Edmonton Retained 1st selection LW Taylor Hall
2011 New Jersey Moved from 8th to 4th D Adam Larsson
2012 Edmonton Moved from 2nd to 1st

* NY Rangers obtained Chicago’s pick in a trade (via Vancouver and Tampa Bay). The Rangers selected RW Pavel Brendl fourth overall.

** Columbus obtained Florida’s pick in a trade. The Blue Jackets selected LW Rick Nash first overall.

*** Pittsburgh obtained Florida’s pick in a trade. The Penguins selected G Marc-Andre Fleury first overall.

- From NHL news release

NEW YORK (Feb. 3, 2012) – New Jersey Devils forward Patrik Elias has been fined $2,500, the maximum allowed under the Collective Bargaining Agreement, for boarding Montreal Canadiens forward Mike Blunden in NHL Game No. 755 in New Jersey on Thursday, Feb. 2, the National Hockey League’s Department of Player Safety announced today.

The incident occurred at 18:54 of the first period. A minor penalty for boarding was assessed on the play.

The fine money goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.

Check out the hit by clicking this link.

- From NHL release

Tampa Bay Lighting F Ryan Malone, a former Pittsburgh Penguin, has received no suspension for his hit to the head of Montreal Canadiens D Chris Campoli, a former Erie Otter. Check out the video and the explanation regarding no suspension by clicking the links.

BUFFALO, NY (June 22, 2010) – The Buffalo Sabres and the National Hockey League announced the 2010-2011 regular season schedule on Monday. The variable pricing designations, as well as box office pricing for individual games will be released at a later date.

All Friday night home games will start at 7:30 p.m. All other home games will begin at 7 p.m., unless otherwise noted. Times are still subject to change. Buffalo will play their 82-game schedule with the same breakdown of opponents as last season. Each team will play their divisional opponents six times (24 games), four games against each non-divisional conference opponents (40 games), one game against each of the 15 non-conference opponents (15)  and three additional “at large” games (Chicago, San Jose and Columbus).

Buffalo’s 2010-11 campaign will get underway on Oct. 8 in Ottawa against the division rival Senators. The team will return to Buffalo immediately following that game to play their home opener on Oct. 9 against the New York Rangers.

The Sabres will play four of their first five games at home during the opening week of the season. Patrick Kane and the Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks make their only trip of the season to HSBC Arena on Oct. 11. The week’s schedule also includes visits from the New Jersey Devils (Oct. 13) and Montreal Canadiens (Oct. 15).

The Toronto Maple Leafs travel to HSBC Arena for the first time on Nov. 26. That’s part of a Thanksgiving week that also features a home game against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Nov. 24. Other highlights of Buffalo’s home schedule include a New Year’s Day game (during the IIHF World Junior Championship) against the Boston Bruins at 5 p.m.; Alexander Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals on Feb. 20 at 3 p.m.; and the lone visit of the season from the Detroit Red Wings on Feb. 26. The Sabres will also play four sets of back-to-back home games: November 19-20, February 25-26, March 19-20 and March 25-26.

The Sabres will head west to Alberta for back-to-back games in Calgary (Dec. 27) and Edmonton (Dec. 28) during the Christmas break. That will be followed up by a three-game western jaunt in early January to Colorado (Jan. 4), San Jose (Jan. 6) and Phoenix (Jan. 8). The team’s longest stretch of road games takes place in March, when they will play seven games from Mar. 1-12. March is the team’s busiest month of the season with 16 games in 31 days. The Sabres will also play 22 sets of back-to-back games this season.

- From Buffalo Sabres news release

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