ZACH BOGOSIAN

The St. Louis Blues have signed forward Brandon Saad to a five-year, $22.5 million contract.

The New York Islanders have evened their series with Pittsburgh by keeping Penguins star Sidney Crosby in check.

Some of the NHL's top teams got a head start on the trade deadline by making moves.

Zdeno Chara is no longer in Boston after the Bruins captain signed with Washington. And the Sabres made an even bigger splash in free agency by landing 2018 NHL MVP Taylor Hall in October. Hall, for example, signed a one-year, $8 million deal with Buffalo by realizing the free-agent market was going to be tight. Oilers general manager Ken Holland chalked it up to the new economic realities facing the NHL. “It’s salary-cap related, which is related to the pandemic, which has given us a hard, flat cap for the foreseeable future,” Holland said.

This is a Stanley Cup matchup for all of those who like their games to be a bit defensive. “In today’s NHL you need that for your team to be successful,” Lightning defenseman Ryan McDonagh said Friday. “We're not surprised,” Stars defenseman John Klingberg said. ... He’s doing it all right now.”The Stars signed 14-year veteran Andrej Sekera as a free agent last summer, and he is finally in his first Stanley Cup Final with his fifth team. “Everyone is obviously very hungry to go all of the way,” said Hedman, part of Tampa Bay's loss to the Chicago Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup Final five years ago.