Edmonton  /ˈɛdməntən/ is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta, Canada. Edmonton is located on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Capital Region, which is surrounded by the central region of the province.

The city and its census metropolitan area had populations of 812,201 and 1,159,869 as of the 2011 Census respectively, making it Alberta's second-largest city, Canada's fifth-largest municipality and Canada's sixth-largest metropolitan area by population. Edmonton is the northernmost North American city with a metropolitan population over one million. A resident of Edmonton is known as an Edmontonian.

The majority of Edmonton's metropolitan population lives within the City of Edmonton rather than in the surrounding suburban municipalities. Historically, Edmonton was surrounded by few other urban municipalities (Strathcona, Beverly and Jasper Place being the largest) but these were absorbed through amalgamation or annexation. Edmonton annexed a significant amount of land up until the early 1980s, and as a result it has sustained much of the region's suburban growth within its own boundaries.

Nail Railovich Yakupov (Russian: Наиль Раилович Якупов, Tatar Cyrillic: Наил Раил улы Якупов, Latin: Nail Rail uli Yakupov; born October 6, 1993) is a Russian junior ice hockey right winger currently playing for the Sarnia Sting of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL).

Besides being the consensus early favourite for top pick in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft, Yakupov, a Tatar, and a Muslim also represents the first potential breakout hockey star from the Republic of Tatarstan (though there have been other NHLers from this region), a federal subject of the Russian Federation, located 500 miles east of Moscow.

Yakupov was selected second overall by the Sarnia Sting in the 2010 Canadian Hockey League (CHL) Import Draft. Prior to this, he played in the Russian Minor Hockey League (MHL) for his hometown team, the Reaktor Nizhnekamsk, but thought that trying to join the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) would be a quicker path to his dream to play in the National Hockey League (NHL).

Yakupov scored his first OHL goal against the Windsor Spitfires on September 24, 2010. After winning OHL Rookie of the Month for the month of October, Yakupov participated in the November 11 game of the Subway Super Series for Team Russia, at the John Labatt Centre in London, Ontario; Russia lost the game 4-0.

Zach Bogosian (born July 15, 1990) is an American professional ice hockey defenseman currently playing for the Winnipeg Jets. The first person of Armenian descent to play in the NHL, Bogosian attended Cushing Academy in Massachusetts before he joined the Peterborough Petes of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) in 2006. He played two seasons in the OHL, and was nominated for the Red Tilson Trophy as the league's most outstanding player in his second season. Bogosian was regarded as a complete, physical defenseman who could contribute on both offense and defense; he was rated as one of the top players heading into the 2008 NHL Entry Draft, where the Atlanta Thrashers selected him third overall. He signed a contract with the team a few weeks after the draft and began the season with the Thrashers, though he missed several weeks of his rookie year due to injury. In his second season, he tied a team record for goals by a defenseman. Bogosian first played in an international tournament when he joined the American national team at the 2009 IIHF World Championship.