The National Hockey League and ESPN are together again: The two sides announced a seven-year agreement Wednesday beginning next season that includes four Stanley Cup Finals, the NHL All-Star game and comprehensive streaming rights.

ESPN has a long history with the league, stretching back to the network’s launch, but hasn’t aired games since 2004.

“This partnership of the world’s top hockey league and the platforms of The Walt Disney Company is a big win for our fans and our game,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said in a statement. “It sets a new standard in delivering our game to the most passionate and tech-savvy fans in sports in the ways they now demand and on the platforms they use.”

ESPN started airing NHL games when it went on the air in 1979 by making deals with individual teams. It had the national NHL rights from 1985-88 and 1992-2004.

Under the new agreement, the Stanley Cup Final will air on ABC in four of the seven years, beginning next season. It also includes 25 regular-season games with the likely breakdown being 15 on ESPN and 10 on ABC. The ABC games would likely air on Saturdays beginning around the All-Star game with the ESPN top game being on Thursday.

ESPN and ABC will also have first choice of which conference final series to air as well as half of the first- and second-round games. Even more significant for ESPN and Disney is that the NHL.TV package – which has more than 1,000 out-of-market games – will move to the ESPN+ streaming service and will be a part of the base package.

ESPN will also produce 75 national games per season that will streamed exclusively on both ESPN+ and Hulu.

RANGERS: Artemi Panarin rejoined the New York Rangers for practice in Boston on Wednesday after taking a two-week leave of absence.

Coach David Quinn said Panarin won’t play Thursday night against the Bruins and his timeline for getting back to game action is unclear. But there’s a buzz around the Rangers that their highest-paid and best player is back.

“He walked in at breakfast and everyone was pretty happy to see him,” defenseman Jacob Trouba said. “We heard rumblings that he might be meeting us in Boston, so everyone kind of kept it quiet, but I think everyone was excited. Obviously great to have him back and happy to have him back in the locker room. I think the team’s obviously excited to have him back around.”

Panarin left the team Feb. 22 after a Russian tabloid printed allegations from a former coach that he attacked a woman in Latvia almost a decade ago, which he denies.

The team called it a fabricated story designed to intimidate Panarin for his political views. Andrei Nazarov, a former NHL enforcer who coached Panarin in the Kontinental Hockey League, said he was motivated to speak about the alleged incident because he disagreed with Panarin’s repeated criticism of the Russian government.

Panarin, 29, has been a vocal critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin and earlier this year posted his support on social media for opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Trouba said Rangers players talked about Panarin’s situation and welcomed him back with open arms, calling it “business as usual.”

Panarin, who was an MVP finalist last season, has missed the past eight games. The Rangers are 4-4 without him.

COYOTES: The Arizona Coyotes could be without top goalie Darcy Kuemper for a significant amount of time due to a lower-body injury.

Kuemper was injured in Monday’s game against Colorado. The team said he is listed as week-to-week.

Kuemper, who missed three games earlier this season with a lower-body injury, went down to a knee in the third period against the Avalanche. He asked the officials to stop the game and skated off to the locker room.

WEDNESDAY’S GAME

WILD 4, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 3: Joel Eriksson Ek had his second career two-goal game and Kirill Kaprizov scored for Minnesota’s league-worst power play, leading the host Wild over West Division-leading Vegas.

Kaapo Kahkonen stopped 24 shots to win his eighth consecutive start for Minnesota, extending his franchise rookie record despite surrendering a hat trick to Dylan Coghlan for the first three goals of his career. Coghlan scored with 6 minutes left and then with the extra attacker with 2:10 remaining.

Carson Soucy scored Minnesota’s third goal of the third period during a rare stumble by Vegas goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, who stopped 25 shots before being pulled for Logan Thompson’s NHL debut about halfway through the final period. Fleury entered the night ranked third in the league in both goals-against average and save percentage.