Minnesota Wild forward Zach Parise and defenseman Ryan Suter spent a portion of Monday working on ways to improve a power play that was ranked 27th in the NHL last season.

They had the help of Adam Oates, who was Parise's assistant coach with the New Jersey Devils from 2010-12. Oates, a Hall of Fame center who had 1,420 points in 1,337 games, watched the Wild's informal practice in Edina, Minn., and afterward worked privately with Parise and Suter for more than an hour.

"Everything he says just makes sense," Parise told the Star Tribune. "I've known him since I've played for him in New Jersey and we've kept in touch and he watches our games and our power plays, so we communicate during the season. He's probably the smartest hockey guy that I've ever been around."

BOLTON, Mass. -- Life changed for Boston Bruins center David Krejci over the summer.

Krejci became a father for the first time when his daughter Elina was born about six weeks ago.

Luckily for the Bruins that wasn't the only change for Krejci. The 29-year-old, who's entering the first season of a six-year, $43.5 million contract he signed last fall, healed up after the most injury-plagued season of his NHL career.

Krejci was limited to 47 games for the Bruins, who missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in eight seasons. He missed 20 games over the first three months with an undisclosed injury widely believed to have been related to his hip or groin. Just when he was getting over that issue, he sustained a torn knee ligament Feb. 20 and missed 15 games until his March 26 return.

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich.-- It was strange not seeing Jeff Blashill behind the bench as coach for the Detroit Red Wings prospects at the Traverse City Tournament this year at Centre Ice Arena.

It was a position he held the past three seasons as the coach for Detroit's American Hockey League affiliate in Grand Rapids. But that changed on June 9 when the 41-year-old was introduced as coach of the Red Wings by general manager Ken Holland.

In Grand Rapids, Blashill won the 2013 Calder Cup, was named the AHL coach of the year in 2014, and reached the Western Conference Final in 2014-15. He also led the organization's top prospects, which included Tomas Jurco, Riley Sheahan and Anthony Mantha, to their first Traverse City tournament championship on Sept. 9, 2013.

Patrik Elias said he would consider becoming New Jersey Devils captain again if asked but thinks there are other players better suited for it.

Elias became Devils captain on Oct. 6, 2006 and served until coach Brent Sutter removed the title during training camp prior to the 2007-08 season.

"I've been in that position before," Elias told Northjersey.com this week. "I think it's a privilege, no question about it. I would consider it. I'm truly hoping it's not my last year, but I think there are different guys that would be more suited for that."

BUFFALO -- Buffalo Sabres forward Jack Eichel is excited to take another step forward in his NHL career.

Eichel, the second pick in the 2015 NHL Draft, will be on the Sabres team that will play the New Jersey Devils and Boston Bruins as part of the Prospects Challenge Saturday through Monday at First Niagara Center in Buffalo.

"You work hard all summer to prepare for prospects tournament and training camp," Eichel said on Friday. "It's been a long road from the draft and everything that's happened. Now that the season's here, I'm just excited to start playing hockey again. It's the time of year everyone loves."

Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price says he tunes out the hockey world over the summer, and it's a good thing for him that he does.

Throughout the offseason, the main question surrounding Price was whether he could repeat the historic season he just completed, leading the NHL in wins (44), goals-against average (1.96) and save percentage (.933).

To expect him to do so, the prevailing wisdom has determined, would be unreasonable.

Price respectfully disagrees, and expressed it with one word when asked Thursday if he could actually improve on his outstanding performance.

Anaheim Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf said they needed to change the roster in order to get closer to winning the Stanley Cup, and the front office did a good job in its attempt.

"I think it was just time to have a little bit of a change," Getzlaf told the Ducks website in remarks published Thursday. "That group played well together, but we need to take that next step and we need to do it now. That was kind of the message over the summer, that we were going to compete for the Stanley Cup again."

The Ducks lost the Western Conference Final in seven games to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks. Anaheim held a 3-2 lead in the best-of-7 series before losing Game 6 at Chicago and Game 7 at home.

DETROIT -- Center Brad Richards has looked at the Detroit Red Wings with respect from afar.

Richard signed a one-year free agent contract July 1 which guarantees $3 million in salary and could reach $4 million with performance bonuses.

"I've obviously admired this team for a long time and no different the last few years," Richards said Thursday at Joe Louis Arena after skating with his teammates for the first time. "Even though they hadn't made a long run (in the playoffs), they're right there, so that's always an impression. I'm very excited to be a Red Wing and play with some of these great players."

LAVAL, Quebec -- There are significant changes coming to the Montreal Canadiens.

Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin announced Thursday that they will name a captain by the end of training camp and that Alex Galchenyuk will move from left wing to center.

The Canadiens did not replace Brian Gionta as captain when he left to sign as a free agent with the Buffalo Sabres last summer. They instead went with four alternate captains last season: defensemen Andrei Markov and P.K. Subban, center Tomas Plekanec and left wing Max Pacioretty.

Bergevin would not say whether it will be one of those four players who will be named captain or if there might be another candidate considered. He said the decision to name a captain after the leadership-by-committee approach last season was that the Canadiens are ready to have one, and the decision may have been rushed if they chose one last season.

The Winnipeg Jets made the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season for the first time since returning to the NHL in 2011-12, but coach Paul Maurice believes that has no effect on how the team does this season.

When Jets training camp opens next week, he said the first few days will be about re-installing all the basic systems he wants the players to use.

"We'll start from scratch Day 1," Maurice told the Jets website. "We'll go back and re-teach the foundations of our system and try to re-create the competitive levels that we did get to, the things we did succeed at. … they're in the memory bank but you have to recreate that emotion, that tenacity that we played with."