Benjamin N. Lovejoy (born February 20, 1984 in Concord, New Hampshire) is a professional ice hockey defenseman currently with the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League.

Ben Lovejoy played high school hockey for prep school Deerfield Academy in Deerfield, Massachusetts. The program has turned out numerous Division 1 standouts over the past two decades, many of whom have gone on to continue their playing careers in the NHL.

Ben Lovejoy was offered an NHL contract by Montreal during his third year of college. Lovejoy turned down the offer so that he could finish school and grow more as a player. Undrafted, Lovejoy played one year for Boston College and three years for Dartmouth College of the NCAA. Lovejoy also played lacrosse at Dartmouth, earning All-Ivy honors in 2006. He graduated from Dartmouth with the class of 2007. He began his professional career a few days after graduation and played five games with the Norfolk Admirals of the American Hockey League to end the 2006–07 season. That summer, Lovejoy signed an AHL contract with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. Ben Lovejoy scored his first pro goal at home during the Saint Patrick's Day game. Lovejoy ended the season with 20 points (2 goals, 18 assists) appearing in 72 games and a plus-16 rating.

Nathan MacKinnon (born September 1, 1995) is a Canadian major junior ice hockey forward who currently plays for the Halifax Mooseheads of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL). MacKinnon has excelled in ice hockey throughout his career, drawing comparisons to National Hockey League player and fellow Nova Scotian Sidney Crosby. He has been mentioned as a candidate to be selected first overall in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft.

MacKinnon grew up playing in the minor ice hockey system of Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia. As an atom aged player, MacKinnon recorded 200 points in 50 games. When MacKinnon was twelve and thirteen, he played Bantam AAA for the Cole Harbour Red Wings, recording seasons of 110 and 145 points respectively. After these two seasons, MacKinnon enrolled at Shattuck-Saint Mary's in Faribault, Minnesota. Also as Crosby did, Nathan chose to leave his hometown and attend the Minnesota boarding school because of the strength of its ice hockey program. In his first season at Shattuck-Saint Mary's playing with the Bantam Tier I program, he scored 101 points in 58 games played to finish second in team scoring. For the 2010–11 season, MacKinnon joined the Under-16 Midget program at the school. Despite being the team's second youngest player, MacKinnon was averaging more than two points a game and was second in team scoring at the midway point of the season. During the season, MacKinnon was named to the team that represented Nova Scotia in the ice hockey tournament at the 2011 Canada Winter Games. At the tournament, MacKinnon scored eight goals and eleven points to finish fourth in tournament scoring as Nova Scotia finished in seventh place. MacKinnon finished his second season at Shattuck-Saint Mary's with 93 points in forty games played, and was second on the team with 45 goals scored.

Mathieu Perreault (born January 5, 1988) is a Canadian ice hockey centre for the Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League.

After an injury to Alex Ovechkin and several other Capitals forwards, Perreault was recalled from the Hershey Bears. He made his NHL debut on November 4, 2009 in New Jersey and recorded two assists while being limited to just 13 shifts and 10:30 of ice time. He became the fifth player from the Caps' 2006 NHL Entry Draft to play in the NHL. In the third game of his call up, Perreault scored his first NHL goal during the third period against Scott Clemmensen and the Florida Panthers at Verizon Center. The goal proved to be the spark that the Capitals needed after being down 3-2. The Capitals ended up winning 7-4.

On July 13, 2011, Perreault signed a one-year, two-way contract with the Washington Capitals.

After two seasons bouncing back and forth between the AHL and NHL, Perreault made the Capitals' opening night roster out of training camp for the first time in 2011.

Mikael Backlund (born 17 March 1989) is a Swedish professional ice hockey centre for the Calgary Flames of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was a first round selection, 24th overall, of the Flames in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft, and made his NHL debut in 2008–09.

Backlund began his junior hockey career with the VIK Västerås HK organization in the J20 SuperElit, Sweden's premier junior league. His impressive two-way play earned him the opportunity to play for Västerås' senior team in the second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan as a sixteen-year-old. In his debut on 2 November 2005, during an away game against Växjö Lakers, Backlund scored a goal in the first period of a 4–0 win and was selected as the player of the game for his team.^{[citation needed]} He tallied four points in his twelve games in HockeyAllsvenskan during the 2005–06 season. That same season, Backlund was dominant in the 2006 TV-pucken, a national under-17 tournament in Sweden played among districts. Leading the tournament in goal- and point-scoring, he was selected as the most valuable player and given the Sven Tumba Award as best forward in the tournament.

Steve Downie (born April 3, 1987) is a Canadian professional ice hockey player currently playing for the Colorado Avalanche in the National Hockey League.

Downie grew up in Holland Landing, Ontario, the younger son of John and Anne Downie. He has a brother, Greg. He attended Sacred Heart High School in Newmarket, playing hockey for the York-Simcoe Express AAA organization of the OMHA. He also attended St. Joseph's Catholic High School in Windsor, Ontario in 2004. Downie led his Express Bantam team to the All-Ontario AAA Championship in April 2002. He was drafted in the 1st round (16th overall) by the Windsor Spitfires in the 2003 OHL Priority Selection.

Downie was selected in the first round, 29th overall, in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft by the Philadelphia Flyers. Not long after being drafted, Downie was suspended for five games early in the 2005–06 OHL season for an on-ice altercation with teammate Akim Aliu. During a practice on September 28, 2005, Downie blindly cross-checked Aliu in the face without warning, knocking out 3 of his teeth, and then proceeded to fight his younger teammate. The incident stemmed from 16-year-old Aliu's refusal to take part in a hazing incident, where he would have been forced to stand naked in a cramped bus bathroom with other rookies. The team suspended Downie for five games and Aliu for one, and Downie was told to undergo professional counseling. Head coach Moe Mantha, Jr. was suspended by the OHL and later fired by the team, and the team was fined $35,000 by the OHL. Downie left the team, requesting a trade, and was eventually traded from the Windsor Spitfires, going to the Peterborough Petes in exchange for Peter Aston.