Sam McCaig

    Sam McCaig is the NHL editor for Yahoo! Sports and Yahoo! Sports Canada.

  • NHL Awards at the Half: Trophy candidates at the midway point of the 2016-17 season

    Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins: Coming off a Stanley Cup championship in June and a World Cup of Hockey title in September, the Penguins’ superstar captain missed the first six games of the NHL season due to a concussion — but then returned to action with a vengeance. McDavid might one day knock Crosby off his “best player in the NHL” perch, but it hasn’t happened yet.

  • NHL rookie race: Sizing up the Calder Trophy chase at the midway point of the season

    Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs take part in warmups before playing the Detroit Red Wings in the 2017 NHL Centennial Classic game at BMO Field on January 1, 2017, in Toronto. The NHL rookie race is coming into focus as the 2016-17 NHL regular season approaches the halfway point.

  • Three keys to Canada-USA showdown in WJC gold-medal game

    Jordan Greenway of Team USA looks to steal a puck from Julien Gauthier of Team Canada during a preliminary round game in the 2017 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship at the Air Canada Centre on December 31, 2016, in Toronto. The USA defeated Canada 3-1. For the fourth time in the 41-year history of the World Junior Hockey Championship, Canada and the United States will face off for the gold medal.

  • Photos: RIP Milt Schmidt, Boston Bruins legend, 1918-2017

    Milt Schmidt, a Hockey Hall of Famer who was a two-time Stanley Cup champion with the Boston Bruins, has passed away at age 98. Schmidt’s NHL career spanned 1936 to 1955, all with the Bruins, and he scored 229 goals and 575 points in 776 career games, adding 24 goals and 49 points in 86 playoff games. Schmidt also won the Art Ross Trophy as the league’s leading scorer in 1940 and the Hart Trophy as the NHL MVP in 1951.

  • Top prospects for 2017 NHL draft: Nolan Patrick hangs on to No. 1 spot

    Despite being limited to six games this season, the Brandon Wheat Kings’ Nolan Patrick remains the No.1-ranked prospect for the 2017 NHL draft. The Brandon Wheat Kings’ Nolan Patrick has been hurting, but he’s holding on to the claim of being the No. 1 prospect for the 2017 NHL draft. The 6-foot-3 WHL centre, who has been limited to just six games this season due to injury and was left off of Team Canada for the world juniors, nevertheless remains the top-ranked player up for grabs in June according to ISS Hockey, an independent scouting company based out of Waterloo, Ont. Timothy Liljegren, a Swedish defenceman who’s also not playing in the 2017 WJC, held on to the No. 2 spot.

  • Top 10 all-Canadian NHL games in 2016-17

    Stop us if you’ve heard this one before, but none of Canada’s seven NHL teams made the playoffs last season. How will they fare in 2016-17? These 10 games could be very telling.

  • Hockey heroes: NHL rookie hopefuls name their first favorite player

    Who did the kids look up to when they were kids? At a photo shoot for a trading card company this week, a handful of NHL rookie hopefuls were asked to recall their first hockey hero.