ESPN presents the best player in the world of the week. If there's a player you'd like to nominate, from your local team to a high school team to your beer league, email us here. Stats tell only part of the story, so tell us why he or she deserves this honor.
Evgeni Malkin, Pittsburgh Penguins (NHL)
That's a mighty impressive onslaught from Geno in the past week: Six goals and two assists in helping the Penguins gain four of six points on the week. That included his 12th career hat trick, vs. the San Jose Sharks, and then two goals and two assists in that 7-4 win over Washington. Also he seemed to enjoy the Super Bowl.
Tuna Karakurum, Koc University (Turkey)
Karakurum plays in the Turkish Ice Hockey Super League. He scored this goal in a 5-4 win over Gumus Patenler, and it's entirely possible it might make the top 10 goals of 2018 when all is said and done.
Didi Buz Hokeyi Süper Ligi'nde haftanın, belki de yılın golü!😵
— sportstv (@sportstvcomtr) February 5, 2018
Koç Üniversitesi'nden Kerem Tuna Karakurum...🏒🥅 pic.twitter.com/cvJpYhq7AI
So, to summarize: The goalie comes out to play the puck, Karakurum trips over him, does a full barrel roll, whips his stick at the puck as it rolls wide of the net and then knocks it in for the goal.
Wow. Thanks to Sean Singer for the tip.
Ty Ronning, Vancouver Giants (WHL)
Ronning had seven points in three games for the Giants to earn Western Hockey League Player of the Week honors. That included five goals, putting him one goal from tying Evander Kane's single-season team record of 48 goals. Ronning is a seventh-round pick by the New York Rangers in 2016, and the son of former EA Sports NHLPA '93 star Cliff Ronning.
Harri Sateri, Florida Panthers (NHL)
We had to double dip for the NHL this week because Sateri was just outstanding. He went 3-0-0 with a 1.67 goals-against average and a .946 save percentage in leading the Panthers to a tie for fourth place in the Atlantic. The 28-year-old rookie, pressed into service because of injuries, is 3-3-0 in seven games this season.
ASU women's club hockey
On occasion, we'll use this space to honor a team rather than a player, so let's give it up for the first senior class of the Arizona State University women's club hockey team. They defeated Denver over the weekend to sweep their season series and have been so successful that they've received an invitation to the WWCHL (Div. I) playoffs in Nebraska.
Now comes the hard part: paying for it. The estimated cost for the trip is $15,000, so they've started a GoFundMe page to help subsidize it.
Dane Byers, Manchester Storm (EIHL)
Byers played in the American Hockey League from 2005 to 2015, making stops with Hartford, Springfield, San Antonio, Oklahoma City and lastly Hershey. He had cups of coffee with the New York Rangers and the Columbus Blue Jackets. He spent two years in Finland, spent 2016-17 in Germany and has bounced over to the Manchester Storm in the Elite Ice Hockey League in the U.K.
So why is he here? Byers, 31, had 11 points in three games last week. He scored a game-tying goal in a 4-1 win over Milton Keynes. And then he just went nuts: two goals and three assists in a win over Coventry Blaze and one goal and four assists the next day in a 7-5 win over the Sheffield Steelers.
Alex Morin, Trinity College (NESCAC)
The Trinity College men's hockey goalie has had himself a career. Now a senior, he picked up win No. 50 last weekend and did so with some style:
Alex Morin of @TCBantamsHockey. Sr. Goalie from St. Hubert, Quebec picked up his 50th career win this last weekend (sealing it with a ridiculous save: https://t.co/dplElXoukk), and came back the next day to post his 6th career shutout.
- Jake Donnelly (@JacobDonnelly31) February 5, 2018
Morin, 23, is a native of Longueuil, Quebec, the same hometown as Anthony Mantha of the Detroit Red Wings. Small world!
And the best player in the world of the week is ...
Caroline Ouellette.
The 38-year-old forward is one of the most decorated players in Canadian hockey history, with gold medals in four straight Olympics and six golds at IIHF worlds. She's actually one of only five athletes to win gold in four consecutive Winter Olympics. One of the others is Canadian hockey legend Jayna Hefford.
On Feb. 4, Ouellette got one over on Hefford. A member of Les Canadiennes of the Canadian Women's Hockey League, Ouellette became the leading scorer in CWHL history by scoring her 131st regular-season goal against the Boston Blades. Ouellette had captured the Clarkson Cup, the league's championship, four times.
That last Clarkson Cup win was significantly different for Ouellette: She was pregnant at the time. On Nov. 5, 2017, she and her partner, USA Hockey legend Julie Chu, welcomed Liv Chu-Ouellette into their family.
By Jan. 27, 2018, Ouellette was back on the ice for Les Canadiennes. "I still have a lot of work to do. It's a very intense sport and I get tired quicker. I'll need four, five, six games to get back to where I want to be," she told the Montreal Gazette.
Ouellette has five points in five games since her return, including that record-breaking goal.
Congrats to Caroline Ouellette, the best hockey player in the world of the week.