Much of the crowd's attention was on the ice Tuesday night at Scotiabank Place in Ottawa, where Canada and the United States competed in yet another epic matchup at the 2013 IIHF Women's World Championship. But for some area hockey fans in the stands, it was impossible to ignore the presence of a prominent figure in Ottawa hockey history.

In town serving as the general manager of Russia's women's national team, Alexei Yashin was at the game scouting his competition. It's a unique situation for the former Senators captain, but one that he is relishing so far.

"It was an available position where I could help Russian hockey to get to the point where they need to be," Yashin said. "Because I'm retired, I saw this opportunity and felt at this particular point I could get involved."

TORONTO -- Prior to the start of every season, NHL Central Scouting has evaluated hundreds of top prospects available in the upcoming NHL Draft.

In addition to the meticulous reports scouts take, it's also required that each prospect file some paperwork to Central Scouting.

So long before Seth Jones of the Portland Winterhawks, Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin of the Halifax Mooseheads, Sean Monahan of the Ottawa 67's and Hunter Shinkaruk of the Medicine Hat Tigers begin a new season, they've already completed their "Central Scouting Questionnaire."

One of the more intriguing areas on the questionnaire are the sections that requires each prospect to identify the strongest area of their game, where they'd like to improve, and the NHL player they most resemble. The self-assessments, for the most part, are pretty accurate. They also provide the scouts with a gauge as to what type of player each prospect expects to become.

Here's a summary of what each of the top five North American prospects, top North American goalie and top European skater from Central Scouting's midterm rankings provided in their questionnaires, followed by an evaluation of that response from NHL Central Scouting.

NASHVILLE -- When the Nashville Predators dealt right wing Martin Erat at the NHL's Trade Deadline on Wednesday without getting a roster player in return, it signified something of a sea change.

From Predators management and the coaching staff on down to the players, no one claimed to be giving up on trying to qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs -- even minus a first-line player who was tied for the team lead in points.

"He's definitely a guy you're going to miss," captain Shea Weber said, "but we've got guys in here that are going to need to step up and I think that's the case all the time."

Top 2013 NHL Draft prospects Frederik Gauthier, Jason Dickinson, Morgan Klimchuk, Shea Theodore and Joshua Morrissey were among 24 players invited by Hockey Canada on Friday to attend a training camp for a spot on Canada's roster for the 2013 World Under-18 Tournament.

Camp will be held April 6-10 at the MasterCard Centre in Toronto. The tournament will be held April 18-28 in Sochi, Russia.

Canada won the bronze medal at last year's tournament, its first medal of any kind since winning the gold in 2008. The United States has won four straight years.

CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. -- As Florida Panthers players stood in a line at practice Friday morning, one of the big pieces of their promising future towered over most of his teammates.

One week after Nick Bjugstad's college career came to a sudden end when Minnesota lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament against Yale nine seconds into overtime, the center took part in his first practice as an NHL player.

Bjugstad was signed to a three-year entry-level contract Wednesday and he'll make his NHL debut Saturday night when the Panthers take on the Washington Capitals at BB&T Center.

"It's pretty wild," Bjugstad said after practice. "A couple of years ago I never would have expected to be here. On draft day, I didn't know how long it was going to take or what it was going to take. I'm very fortunate to be here. A lot of people helped me get here. I'm very happy."

It's every goaltender's job to avoid goals.

Maybe that's why Niklas Svedberg only has one: "You play hockey because you want to win hockey games."

And win he has. The Providence Bruins rookie has amassed a 32-8-2 record in his first season in the American Hockey League, with no signs of slowing down.

"There's no reason to have any other goal than winning," he said. "That's the mindset to have."

Signed by the Boston Bruins last May, the 23-year-old Swedish netminder has been winning in Providence ever since. Now almost a year later, the P-Bruins are comfortably at the top of the Atlantic Division and on the brink of their first trip to the AHL postseason since 2009.

They start each fall at 59 -- NCAA Division I teams, that is.

Sixteen go on to postseason play.

The winner of each of the four regionals advances to the Frozen Four. This year it will be Massachusetts-Lowell, Quinnipiac, St. Cloud State and Yale participating at Pittsburgh's Consol Energy Center on April 11 and 13.

For the majority of all college players, each season ends like those of current Florida Panthers forward George Parros. He left Princeton in 2003 never having made the NCAA Tournament in four years.

This past week had no shortage of great highlights, but we thought the three exciting moments below stood out from the rest. After you watch these videos, be sure to vote on what play you think deserves to be the Bridgestone Performance Moment of the Week.

Callahan's short-handed goal: While short handed 5-on-3 Monday, Rangers captain Ryan Callahan raced into the Jets' zone and dragged the puck by Tobias Enstrom and Ondrej Pavelec to even the score.

It is an argument that inspires passion in every rink, sports bar and living room where hockey is being played or is on the television. It can incite elevated heart rates in person and long discussion threads on the Internet.

Who is the best?

NHL.com and NHL Network gathered 10 writers and television personalities and asked that very question. Each was asked to rank their top eight in eight categories -- centers, left wings, right wings, defensemen, goalies, coaches, general managers and guys who wore the No. 8 sweater.

The voting, which took place for all eight segments in mid-February, is complete and the points have been tallied. Here is our answer to the simple question, who are the best in the NHL?

Live by the shootout, die by the shootout. That could be the fate of the New Jersey Devils this season.

The Devils finished sixth in the Eastern Conference last season with 102 points, and a major part of their success was their ability to win post-overtime tiebreakers. New Jersey went to the shootout 16 times last season and won a League-high 12 of them. Ilya Kovalchuk set single-season records with 11 goals and seven game-deciding shootout goals, Zach Parise was 8-for-16 and the Devils led the NHL by scoring on 57.1 percent of their attempts.

But the Devils enter the weekend on the outside looking in at the top eight teams in the Eastern Conference playoff race, and their lack of success in the shootout is a big reason.