NHL

A day after saying he would not re-sign with Tampa Bay, Nikita Kucherov was in the lineup and had a multipoint game at Nashville. Coach Jon Cooper says, "Kuch is going to play like the superstar he is."

Nikita Kucherov, the NHL's MVP and Tampa Bay's all-time leading scorer, is set to be an unrestricted free agent after this season. Multiple reports say he told the team he won't re-sign and asked for a trade.

Kucherov fired a shot on the power play and Brayden Point poked in the rebound, giving the reigning league MVP his 10th assist of the season during Tampa Bay's game at Utah. It was his 1,138th career point.

Tampa Bay, which opens the season Thursday at the New York Rangers, have won consistently under Jon Cooper, but another strong regular season will mean little without making a deep playoff run.

The Bolts begin work on Thursday at the TGH Ice Plex, with the first of four preseason games on Sunday. A new collective bargaining agreement brings fewer practice days and an 84-game regular season.

Tampa Bay begins the season Oct. 1 at the New York Rangers, then opens at home two days later against the Washington Capitals. For the first time since 1994, the NHL will play an 84-game slate.

Tampa Bay had to wait until the second round, but traded up six spots to take the forward, who will play at UMass this season. Kulebiakin and the other picks will be at this week's development camp in Brandon.

Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov, who claimed his second MVP, finished 10 points ahead of Edmonton's Connor McDavid in a close vote by the Professional Hockey Writers Association.

Andrei Vasilevskiy, a runaway winner in voting by the league's GMs, earned the honor for the second time in his career. He learned about the honor during a prank carried out with help from Tampa police.

Cooper was caught off-guard when he was presented with the trophy during a ceremony at Tampa General Hospital to open a pediatric cancer lounge was fundred by his charity.

Tampa Bay's captain had been around the team in recent weeks, even taking part in some skates. But his last game was in mid-March. He didn’t play in the final 22 games, including the playoffs against Montreal.

Montreal scored twice off fluky deflections and rookie goaltender Jakub Dobes made 28 saves to eliminate Tampa Bay in the opening round of the playoffs for the fourth straight season.