Wednesday Habs Headlines: Nicolas Deslauriers a feel-good story in a disappointing season

Montreal Canadiens news and notes

• Nicolas Deslauriers’ new contract is a feel-good story. [Sportsnet]
• Francois Gagnon evaluates the Habs roster with Simon Tsalikis. [TSN 690]
• Arpon Basu on which members of the Habs’ roster he’s paying attention to. [TSN 690]
• A practice day in this miserable season, as documented by Basu. [The Athletic]
• With the season lost, what do the Canadiens have in store for us? [Journal de Montreal]/

Around the league and elsewhere

• Bold predictions for all 31 NHL teams at the Trade Deadline. [ESPN]
• As the rest of the league moves away from the slapshot, the Nashville Predators are embracing it. [The Athletic]
• Any Erik Karlsson trade may require taking on Bobby Ryan’s contract. [TSN (Video)]
• Lou Lamoriello is many things, but adept at technology may not be one of them. [Ryan Hurst (Thread)]
• Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is planning a March return. [TSN]
• In the wake of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir’s transcendant gold medal performance, Mike Babcock and other members of the Toronto Maple Leafs talk about how figure skating can help hockey players. [The Athletic]
• Alex Ovechkin and Patrik Laine might become Xbox buddies. [Isabelle Khurshudyan]/

Completely random, but just asked Ovechkin about that moment in Winnipeg when he chatted with Laine during a stoppage. He *really did* ask Laine if he still wants to play video games sometime.

— Isabelle Khurshudyan (@ikhurshudyan) February 20, 2018

• Slovenian forward Ziga Jeglic has failed an in-competition doping test. Slovenia was eliminated from the Mens Hockey tournament by Norway on Tuesday. [Reuters]
• Hockey Canada has responded to criticism that they instructed the IIHF to pronounce player names using English phonetics, even for Francophone players. [Journal de Montreal]/