Months have flown by since New York Rangers’ president and general manager Chris Drury released a letter to the public outlining the team’s plan to “retool” the roster.
Since then, the Rangers have made a flurry of moves, being one of the most active teams in the NHL on the trade market.
Here are all of the Rangers’ trades and signings since Drury’s Jan. 16 letter was released:
Trades:
Jan. 26: Carson Soucy trades to New York Islanders in exchange for 2026 third-round pick
Feb. 5: Artemi Panarin Traded To Los Angeles Kings in exchange for Liam Greentree and a 2026 conditional third-round pick
Mar. 6: Sam Carrick traded to Buffalo Sabres in exchange for a 2026 third-round pick and 2026 sixth-round pick
Mar. 6: Brennan Othmann traded to the Calgary Flames in exchange for Jacob Battaglia.
Jun. 26: Brett Berard traded to Montreal Canadiens in exchange for William Trudeau.
Jun. 26: Rangers acquire Pavel Dorofeyev from Vegas Golden Knights in exchange for a 2026 first-round pick, 2026 third-round pick and a conditional 2028 first-round pick
Jun. 27: Adam Edström traded to Nashville Predators in exchange for Massimo Rizzo and a 2026 sixth-round pick.
Jul. 1: Rangers acquire Joonas Korpisalo from Bruins in exchange for Kalle Vaisanen and a 2028 fourth-round pick
Jul. 1: Vincent Trocheck traded to Utah mammoth in exchange for Sean Durzi, Cole Beaudoin, and a 2027 third-round pick
Jul. 1: Will Borgen traded to Bruins in exchange for a 2028 third-round pick
Jul. 1: Rangers acquire Marcus Pettersson from Vancouver Canucks in exchange for a 2030 top-ten protected first-round pick
Signings:
Jan. 31: Rangers claim Vincent Iorio off of waivers from San Jose Sharks
Feb. 27: Rangers claim Tye Kartye off of waivers from Seattle Kraken
Jul. 1: Rangers sign Oliver Bjorkstrand to one-year, $1.25 million contract
Jul 1: Rangers sign Joe Veleno to one-year, $1.2 million contract
Perhaps Logan Stanley fumbled the bag this summer.
The towering defenceman had chances to sign early in free agency and passed, betting on something better, something along the lines of $4 million AAV. That bet hasn't paid off. Stanley is still unsigned as of August 10th, now the best defenceman left on the board for whatever that title is worth (not much). Whoever signs him now will pay him less, for less term, than what he could've gotten in July.
Stanley is coming off his best all-around season, despite a trade from Winnipeg to Buffalo that he didn't want with Luke Schenn, in exchange for forward Isak Rosén, defenseman Jacob Bryson, a 2027 second-round draft pick, and a conditional 2026 fourth-round draft pick. Didn't matter to Buffalo, though, who scratched him multiple times during their playoff run and are now not interested in re-signing him. The Jets, meanwhile, signed Mario Ferraro, closing the door on a reunion there too.
Earlier this summer, a four-year deal near a $4 million AAV looked realistic. The salary cap is increasing, and a massive 6'7" physical defenceman whose game relies on imposing reach, heavy physical play, a booming long-range shot, and a simple defensive style is desirable among many teams. Now, with training camps closing in and cap space drying up around the league, Stanley's looking at one or two years, somewhere around $2 million and less if the season starts and he remains unsigned.
The same thing happened to Jack Roslovic before he signed with the Edmonton Oilers. He and his agent came into the offseason wanting more than what other teams were willing to pay. Following his signing early in the season, Stan Bowman spoke to the media between periods and relayed that the Oilers had originally offered him $2 million AAV in the summer, and they declined, opting to seek more elsewhere. Roslovic later signed in Edmonton for 1 year with a $1 million AAV.
Stanley runs the risk of running into the same situation.
Stanley has been linked to Philadelphia, Anaheim, San Jose and Pittsburgh, with the Penguins the current favourite and the Ducks close behind. Both teams need blueline depth, and Stanley's physical, in-your-face style fits what they're missing. He's never been shy about playing in the dirty areas.
Perhaps Edmonton should be thrown into the mix, even if it's a longer shot than the four teams above. The Oilers are sitting on roughly $4.725 million in projected cap space with 46 players already under contract. That's tight, but not nothing, especially for a short-term deal in Stanley's new price range. Edmonton has some size on the backend, but a replacement piece, one who's a physical, low-cost rental who can eat minutes in a bottom pairing, is the depth that the Oilers have been looking for. It would take some maneuvering to make the money work, and Stan Bowman hasn't shown much interest in one-year rental defencemen this summer. But if Stanley's market keeps collapsing and his price tag drops into the low twos, it's not a total reach to see Edmonton at least make a call.
For now, Stanley waits. Training camps are almost here, and the longer this drags, the worse his leverage gets.
The Columbus Blue Jackets' Zach Werenski is really good and has been for years. Sadly, it took years for the rest of the league to take notice, though. In the last two seasons, Werenski has shown that he is arguably the top defenseman, as shown by the Norris Trophy he earned last season.
NHL Network recently released its "Top 20 Defensemen Right Now" list, and to no one's surprise, Zach Werenski is very high on the list.
Werenski comes in at #3 on the list, with only Cale Makar and Quinn Hughes ahead of him.
"Werenski was voted the Norris Trophy winner as the best defenseman in the League last season, after he led the Blue Jackets and was second among NHL defensemen, with 81 points (22 goals, 59 assists) in 75 games. That was one off of the NHL career-best 82 points he had in 2024-25, making him the ninth defenseman in NHL history to have consecutive 80-point seasons. His 59 assists matched the single-season Blue Jackets record, set by Artemi Panarin in 2018-19 and equaled by Werenski in 2024-25, and his 22 goals were one off the mark for a Blue Jackets defenseman, which he had set with 23 goals in 2024-25. The 29-year-old had a plus-9 even-strength goal differential while finishing third in the NHL with an average even-strength ice time of 22:21. Werenski also helped Team USA win the gold medal at the 2026 Winter Olympics. He had six points (one goal, five assists) in six games, including the primary assist on Jack Hughes' overtime goal in the 2-1 win against Team Canada in the championship game."
The rest of the top-5 is Rasmus Dahlin and Miro Heiskanen.
There is some uncertainty surrounding Werenski with the drama that took place this summer, and many wonder if it will affect his performance next season as a member of the CBJ. Werenski is a pro, so don't expect him to just glide along next season waiting for a trade to happen.
Expect more stellar play from Zach Werenski.
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Change can be hard to come by in the NHL. The cliche of the “200 hockey men” way of thinking is a cliche for a reason. The NHL is an old boys club, where men who are already connected to the inner circle in one way or another have a massive advantage over everyone else. Not only this, but this insular group also has a band of media allies eager to do their bidding and serve as mouthpieces and shields for them, all to get a little access. This media version of the old boys club has some degree of separation from the group that is actually inside the league, but they are, for the most part, hand-in-glove with one another. Granted this is also the case in many, many industries across the world, but at least as far as sports go, the NHL is among the worst in this regard.
The sons of former NHLers are making it to the league at a crazy rate. The same 35-40 men keep getting all the head coaching jobs. Front offices keep getting staffed with the same candidates too, although I do think there is a little more variety in GM hirings than head coach hirings. The hockey media keeps churning out new, interesting people every year, but the newbies are mostly kept to the fringes unless they toe the company line, so to speak. It’s all so incestuous, and while other sports are guilty of this to a certain degree as I mentioned, the NHL really does feel like they’re behind the rest of them.
But with the Carolina Hurricanes finally getting over the hump and winning their elusive championship in the Rod Brind’Amour era, a question has started to bounce around in my head: Are we, at long last, about to see the Moneyball revolution in the NHL that we have seen in other sports?
The Moneyball Revolution?
I suppose the first thing I should do is define what I mean by the “Moneyball revolution”. For those who don’t follow baseball, Moneyball is a reference to Michael Lewis’ 2003 book, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game. The book is about the 2002 Oakland Athletics, and more specifically, their general manager, Billy Beane. Oakland was one of the lowest-revenue teams in MLB back then, and with franchises like the Yankees and Red Sox buying all the best players, including Oakland’s own Jason Giambi and Johnny Damon, Beane and the A’s had to get creative in order to stay competitive. By moving away from traditional baseball thinking and embracing the sabermetrics pioneered by people such as Bill James, Beane and the Athletics were able to find value in places where nobody else in baseball was looking, helping them to yet another monster season in 2002, even if it did end disappointingly in the ALDS.
Granted, while the focus on the market inefficiency of on-base percentage and the diamonds in the rough such as Scott Hatteberg certainly helped, the team was also loaded with big time stars. You wouldn’t know it from watching the movie adaptation of the book, but the A’s also employed these guys named Barry Zito, Mark Mulder, and Tim Hudson back then. Not to mention Miguel Tejada and Eric Chavez. Those guys were pretty good! But I’m getting off on a tangent here. The point is, while the 2002 A’s had their homegrown stars, it was the Moneyball ethos that helped them build depth and give them those all-important edges that can push a team over the top.
As mentioned, those 2002 A’s didn’t win it all, but they perhaps did something even more important: they changed the game. In the wake of Oakland’s embrace of Moneyball, the rest of MLB started to embrace analytics. Now, almost a quarter century later, Major League Baseball is completely unrecognizable from how it was when Beane was signing the Hattebergs of the world. Nowadays, the standard operating procedure for MLB front offices is to hire analytics-minded GMs, build a massive analytics department, and incorporate advanced stats into every decision. Depending on who you talk to, this isn’t necessarily a good thing. But whether it’s good or bad is almost besides the point. The real point is that Moneyball changed the game forever.
Look around MLB today, and you would be hard pressed to find a general manager/president of baseball operations who was a former player or manager. It’s mostly longtime scouts with a specialty in analytics, or Ivy League guys with degrees in data science or something similar. In fact, one of the very few former player GMs, the Texas Rangers’ Chris Young, is a Princeton grad himself. As far as I can tell, only Buster Posey and Jerry Dipoto are leading men in an MLB front office that are former players without an accompanying high-level education. For better or worse, baseball is run by the nerds these days.
Eric Tulsky, Sunny Mehta, And The Value Of Iconoclasm
Thanks to Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics, Major League Baseball has had it’s Moneyball revolution. But while analytics has certainly become more prominent in the NHL in recent years, it is still a far cry from what baseball has accomplished in this regard. Do that same test of NHL GMs/POHOs, and you will find that the vast majority of the league’s top decision makers were former players, even if only briefly. And that doesn’t even count legacy cases (or nepo-babies, depending on how cynical you’re feeling) such as Stan Bowman or Chris Patrick. Once again, the NHL is very insular and obsessed with not rocking the boat.
Despite this, the reason I wonder if the NHL is on the edge of an analytics upheaval is pretty simple: the recent 1-2 punch of Eric Tulsky winning the Stanley Cup, and our New Jersey Devils hiring Sunny Mehta as their own general manager.
We’ll start with Carolina. Tulsky’s origin story from blogger to GM is a familiar one at this point, so I won’t get into the finer details here. The broad strokes are that he is a brilliant man with degrees in chemistry and physics from Harvard University, who worked in nanotechnology for a decade, and then entered the world of hockey through writing about the NHL for SB Nation. He parlayed those credentials into part-time consulting/analyst work for a few NHL clubs, and then eventually a full-time role with the Carolina Hurricanes. While in Raleigh, he worked his way up from the analytics department to assistant GM to, finally, general manager in the summer of 2024. Two years later, he became the man who brought the Cup back to North Carolina.
Tulsky’s existence is almost a direct affront to the 200 hockey men that uphold NHL orthodoxy. I know I sound like a broken record, but it really does bear a lot of repeating: these men do NOT like outsiders coming in and changing things. The 200 hockey men are very, very, VERY concerned with making sure nobody rocks the boat, lest there be significant consequences. And yet, Tulsky was able to break through the firewall and reach the NHL mountaintop. Obviously there have been front offices in recent years that have relied significantly on analytics to build championship rosters, but they were usually fronted by much more traditional hockey men. Think Colorado with Joe Sakic. But Tulsky is the first person that truly embodies the Moneyball spirit to be the leading figure of a club that won the last game of their season in June.
And now, as Tulsky hoists the Cup, in comes Sunny Mehta. A native son of New Jersey, Mehta is cut from the same cloth as Tulsky as a brilliant outsider of sorts. Much like Tulsky, I won’t go deep into Mehta’s biography here since everyone is probably familiar with it. Suffice to say, Mehta’s unique path from musician to poker player to hockey analytics firebrand has landed him the top job with his childhood team, and with his hiring comes a heavy emphasis on analytics. Once again, this does not mean the New Jersey Devils organization was devoid of any sort of analytics prior to Mehta’s arrival. In fact, the franchise employs one of the bigger analytics departments in the league, running seven employees deep with Matt Cane at the top as Vice President, Hockey Analytics and Strategy according to the Devils front office directory.
That being said, that analytics department used to be led by Tom Fitzgerald, who was the epitome of the stale, cowardly hockey mind who was scared of taking even the tiniest risk in his later years as Devils GM. I’m not going to say that Fitzgerald made zero good moves, because that would be unfair and inaccurate. I’m also not going to say that he took zero risks either, because that also wouldn’t be true. But after the team’s magical 2022-23 season, Fitzgerald definitely became way more risk-averse. He was a conformist who was already inclined to lean into his hockey man instincts, and after the failures of 2023-24, he fully retreated into the safe, bland, traditional way of doing things in his last few seasons at the helm. The Devils might have had a relatively large analytics department, but with Fitzgerald running things, it was sort of like giving a trained jiu jitsu fighter a sniper rifle and expecting him to know how to use it.
By the end, Devils fans, myself included, were so unbelievably sick of Fitzgerald’s complete aversion to doing anything. We were desperate for change, and tons of us wanted the Devils to bring Mehta home. To be fair, it wasn’t just because he was an analytics guy. No, it was mostly because Mehta proved that his data-based approach was extremely effective in Florida, where he helped lead the Panthers to back-t0-back championships as Bill Zito’s assistant general manager. And it wasn’t just Devils fans who wanted him. Every team that was in the market for a new GM this offseason seemed to have Mehta at or near the top of their wish list. I seem to recall the Toronto Maple Leafs fanbase especially clamoring for him before he signed on with the Devils. Leafs fans were in a very similar situation as Devils fans, having suffered through the unbelievably stale, traditional tenure of Brad Treliving. They wanted a fresh mind with new ideas. They wanted winning analytics. They wanted Mehta.
So now Mehta has secured the top job in New Jersey. And before his team has played a single game with him at the wheel, he’s already shown a willingness to spit in the eye of the traditional way of doing things. Offer sheets are very rare in the NHL. We have seen a slight uptick in offer sheets in recent years, such as the Sebastian Aho-Jesperi Kotkaniemi saga from a few years back, and the dual St. Louis Blues offer sheets of 2024 for Dylan Hollaway and Philip Broberg. But by and large, they are still an underutilized tool, largely because traditional hockey lifers view them as some sort of significant breach of decorum. But Mehta didn’t care one bit about that, signing Utah’s Barrett Hayton to an offer sheet after Bill Armstrong backed out of a trade that would’ve sent Hayton to New Jersey at the draft. To be fair, this offer sheet failed, and even if it didn’t, it’s not like this alone would be proof that Mehta is doing a great job. But it’s just so refreshing to see a GM think outside the box while seeming to lean on his data to make smart player acquisition moves. Mehta didn’t care that there was decorum to uphold or that he was the new kid on the block. He came in and immediately tried to improve his club by whatever means necessary.
But of course, this was a slap in the face to the old ways of doing things. And as a result, a couple of those 200 hockey men found it necessary to wag their fingers at Mehta:
Meanwhile, those same media insiders laughed at Tulsky and the Hurricanes for shipping Mikko Rantanen out just a handful of games after they traded for him from the Colorado Avalanche during the 2024-25 season. But Tulsky didn’t care what the stuffy old hockey media thought, he did what was best for his team. Once he learned that he wouldn’t be able to sign Rantanen long-term, Tulsky pivoted, took the PR hit, and acquired a ton of draft capital and a player in Logan Stankoven that became absolutely indispensable to the Hurricanes run to a championship this spring.
This is the value of being an iconoclast. Like Beane with on-base percentage, Tulsky and Mehta are looking for market inefficiencies wherever they can find them, without worrying about decorum or tradition or being mocked by those in and around the game. Mind you, being different just for the sake of being different is not a great approach. There’s a difference between being an effective iconoclast and a shallow contrarian. It’s not enough to go against tradition, you have to actually have a plan. Tulsky did, and his reward was 16 playoff victories in 2026. Despite being brand new to the job, I feel confident in saying that Mehta has a solid plan. By his own admission, the roster still needs some work. But The Rock wasn’t built in a day after all, and I have faith that Mehta can play the long game well.
Time Will Tell
For as hostile as the NHL can be to change, the NHL is also a copycat league. This paradoxically makes the league one filled with people who don’t want anything to change, yet who constantly change some things in order to chase the latest winning trend. It happens with styles of play, it happens with which player archetypes are valued, and it happens with front office structure.
Before Eric Tulsky was promoted to GM in Carolina, there was another sort of shift taking place in front offices: the rise of the former agents. Entering this upcoming season, you could argue that the two best general managers in the league are Bill Zito and Kent Hughes, two former player agents. In Edmonton, Jeff Jackson, another former agent, is the CEO and President of Hockey Operations. This isn’t anywhere close to the level of upheaval as the arrival of the analytics nerds, as agents occupy some of the same space in the inner circle as those 200 hockey men. But it’s at least a little different than normal.
So the NHL was already on its way to changing who runs things, and Tulsky was the first one to successfully kick in the door as a true outsider. I use the word “successfully” very deliberately there, as I would argue the then-Arizona Coyotes hiring John Chayka was an analytics-oriented move that predated Tulsky. The problem was, that hire didn’t work out all that much, and Chayka was fired and left the game before returning this offseason in Toronto. But whereas Chayka didn’t really have much of a track record to justify his hiring, Tulsky did, and he backed it up by winning a championship. Now Mehta comes in with a pretty sparkling resume of his own. I’m not going to say that a Moneyball revolution is riding on whether Mehta sinks or swims. That would be reductive and shortsighted, especially considering the analytics movement didn’t die with Chayka. But I will say this: If Mehta succeeds in the same way Tulsky did, I think even the 200 hockey men are going to be way more inclined to believe in analytics. For now, they have the luxury of viewing Tulsky as a one-off anomaly since no one else with his type of background has achieved anything in the NHL. But if Mehta succeeds, people would be forced to see this as a viable, repeatable, dependable option, not just a passing fad or a lucky outlier.
For now, I don’t think Devils fans, myself included, care all that much about leading a revolution in how the game of hockey is managed. We just want to win. Still, it might be worth at least a passing thought on what Mehta’s hire means in the larger context of hockey history. If Mehta really does go on to become a general manager who, dare I say, brings some Stanley Cups to New Jersey and builds himself a hall of fame career as a builder, I think there’s a real possibility that his hiring is looked back on as the spark that ignited the Moneyball revolution in the NHL. And wouldn’t that just be the coolest thing ever to know that it was our guy who revolutionized the game we all know and love?
The Columbus Blue Jackets have 52 days until opening night at Nationwide Arena. Today we look at the history of jersey #52. Almost every player on this list has a bad reputation of some sort.
Let's take a look.
Adam Foote - 2006-08 - Foote was the first player to wear #52 for the Blue Jackets in their history. In August of 2005, Adam Foote signed a 3-year contract with the Columbus Blue Jackets. At the time, it seemed like a wonderful thing. A long-time star chose to sign with a young expansion team, and things were looking up. He would be joining a team with guys like Rick Nash, Sergei Federov, Todd Marchant, and Geoff Sanderson. After just a few months, Foote was given the C after Luke Richardson stepped down as the captain.
In his first season with Columbus, he would play in 65 games. He scored six goals and had 22 points, which was good enough for third among defensemen on the team. The 2006-07 season saw him play 59 games. Foote only scored three goals and had 12 points. His first two seasons in Columbus weren’t going too well. In the third and final year of his contract, he would play in 63 games for the CBJ, scoring one goal and totaling 15 points. He was actually on pace to have his best year in a CBJ uniform.
On February 26th of 2008, Adam Foote was traded to the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for a pair of draft picks. The rumor was that Columbus was trying to re-sign Foote, but Foote was pricing himself out of Columbus. The rumors back then were that Foote and his agent set their contract demands so high because they knew Columbus wouldn’t accept them, essentially forcing his way out of Columbus.
He ended his tenure with Columbus by playing in 187 games and totaling 49 points. He would play until 2011, and then he decided to retire. He was hired by the Vancouver Canucks to coach the 25-26 season, but was fired shortly after the season ended. He is now an asst. coach for the Utah Mammoth.
Craig Rivet - 2011 - Originally drafted by Montreal in 1992, where he played the first 12 years of his career, he came to the Jackets at the end of his career in 2004. Rivet, who was the captain of the Buffalo Sabres at the time, was waived by Buffalo on February 23, 2011. On February 26, 2011, Rivet was claimed on re-entry waivers by the Jackets, where he played in 14 games and totaled 1 point. After announcing his retirement in October of 2011, he signed with the ECHL's Elmira Jackals. It was later discovered that he signed the contract to obtain his United States permanent residency.
Kerby Rychel - 2015 - Rychel was drafted by Columbus in the first round of the 2013 draft and is the son of former NHL enforcer Warren Rychel. Unfortunately, the book on Kerby Rychel is really short. After playing just 37 games over two seasons, Rychel was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs for defenseman Scott Harrington. Rychel would go on to play only 6 more NHL games in his career.
He spent two seasons playing for Columbus' AHL affiliate, the Springfield Falcons, and the Lake Erie Monsters. He would help the Monsters win the 2016 Calder Cup by totaling 27 points in 37 games.
In 2019, he would leave for Swedish club Örebro HK of the Swedish Hockey League. He would quickly terminate that contract when KHL club HC Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk offered him a deal on September 3, 2019. The team would terminate his contract after only seven games when he failed to score a single point.
Rychel is officially retired.
Emil Bemström - 2020-24 - The Blue Jackets drafted Emil Bemström in 2017, #117 overall. Although he wasn’t a high draft pick, many draft experts thought the CBJ had found a decent player—a shifty skater with a very good shot who would score.
Bemström made his NHL debut during the 19-20 season. He would play in 56 games that season, scoring 10 goals and 20 points. Additionally, he played five playoff games in the bubble in 2020 but would fail to score a point.
During the shortened 2021 season, Bemström played 20 NHL games and also played for HIFK in Liiga. He would only score three goals and total five points for the Jackets. For HIFK, however, he had 17 points in 16 games. During a game in May of 2021, Bemström would net a natural hat trick against the Nashville Predators, his first NHL goal since March 2020.
In the 2021-22 season, Bemström would only play 41 games for the Jackets. He scored six goals and had 11 points. He would also play four games for Cleveland of the AHL, scoring two goals.
In the 2022-23 season, Bemström would see his time split between Columbus and Cleveland. In Cleveland, he would play in 21 total games, scoring 14 goals and totaling 31 points. He seemed to be able to score and assist at will. In Columbus, however, it was a different story. He played in 55 games, scoring 7 goals for 22 points, and averaged 12 minutes per game on ice.
Fans have a love/hate relationship with Emil Bemström. Most people think of him as a top prospect with unlimited potential, but they need to realize he was a 4th-round pick. Although a lot of scouts and draft experts didn’t think Bemström would even play in the NHL, he has shown that he can at least score a few goals.
But on April 13th, 2023, against the Pittsburgh Penguins, that love/hate relationship came to a head. Through no fault of his own and simply doing what he is being paid to do, he scored a power-play goal. The Penguins were winning the game 2-1 with a little over three minutes left to play. Johnny Gaudreau would go on to win the game for the Jackets in OT. This win sealed the Jackets' fate in that they would not secure the worst record in the NHL, thus losing out on the chance to draft #1 overall. A large portion of CBJ fans turned on Bemström for this, unfairly. He seemed to have been forgiven after the Blue Jackets were able to secure Adam Fantilli.
Bemström's time in North America has come to an end after it was reported that he will be signing with SC Bern of the Swiss National League. In his first season back in Europe, he totaled 20 points in 33 games.
Who was favorite, or least favorite #52?
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Welcome to The Hockey News - Vancouver Canucks site’s 2026–27 player preview article series. This series will outline the expectations for every player projected to play for the Canucks during the 2026–27 season. Today’s player is Canucks defenceman Luke Schenn.
Schenn's 2025–26 Season
Schenn spent last year with both the Winnipeg Jets and the Buffalo Sabres. The 36-year-old recorded seven points in 46 games for the Jets before being dealt to the Sabres at the trade deadline. During his time in Buffalo, Schenn played four regular-season games along with two in the playoffs.
Once the off-season rolled around, Schenn chose to join Vancouver for the third time in his career. The right-shot defender signed a one-year deal on July 1, which carries an AAV of $2.25 million. Over his career, Schenn has played 139 games with the Canucks and recorded 612 hits.
Schenn's 2026–27 Predictions
Based on Vancouver's roster, Schenn will most likely slot in on the Canucks' third pair beside Elias Pettersson. He will be a key part of the penalty kill when in the lineup and should finish near the top of the team standings for hits at the end of the campaign. Ultimately, it will be interesting to see how many games Schenn plays and if he becomes a tradeable asset ahead of the deadline.
One of Schenn's biggest jobs this year will be to help fix the locker room. The two-time Stanley Cup champion will be part of the leadership group and can help guide the younger players on Vancouver's roster as they learn how to become everyday NHLers. Schenn brings plenty of value off the ice and will be relied upon as a culture guy for the organization.
Finally, Schenn is closing in on an NHL record. If he can record 191 hits this year, the former Kelowna Rockets standout will become the first defender in league history with 4,000 career hits. Only one other player has achieved this impressive feat, with that being forward Cal Clutterbuck, who recorded 4,029 hits in 1,064 games.
Jan 24, 2023; Vancouver, British Columbia, CAN; Vancouver Canucks defenseman Luke Schenn (2) awaits the start of play against the Chicago Blackhawks during the first period at Rogers Arena. Mandatory Credit: Anne-Marie Sorvin-USA TODAY Sports
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The New Jersey Devils don't have a player on their roster who cracked the NHL's list of top-20 defensemen. They have seen Dougie Hamilton on it before, and Luke Hughes has the potential to get his name in the mix, but it didn't happen ahead of the 2026-27 season.
Where there is hope, however, is a potential acquisition for the New Jersey Devils. If the Minnesota Wild don't extend Luke's brother Quinn Hughes, the Devils would be adding an elite player. The NHL ranked him at number two, only trailing Cale Makar of the Colorado Avalanche.
NHL Network's Top 20 Defensemen Right Now list has a total of: • 21 total All-Star Game appearances • 11 All-Rookie team honors • Seven Norris Trophies • Seven Olympic Gold Medals • Four Calder Trophies • Two Conn Smythe Trophies • Six Stanley Cups
Of course, it would be an incredible family story if Quinn Hughes came to the New Jersey Devils, but there are hockey reasons that it makes sense as well.
In 2025-26, Hughes had 7 goals and 69 assists for 76 points in 74 games played. He was also the number one defenseman on Team USA, which won Gold in Milano Cortina's 2026 Winter Olympic Games.
If that type of production came to the Devils, with the young core they have in place at forward and on defense, they'd go from playoff hopefuls to Stanley Cup contenders. New Jersey is a franchise rich in history of elite defensemen winning Cups, and Quinn would be a great addition to that.
Quinn was traded to the Minnesota Wild during the 2025-26 season from the Vancouver Canucks, who were made aware that he wanted to eventually play with his brothers when his contract came up. Now, it seems to be a decision between the Wild and Devils for the 26-year-old superstar.
Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier form one of the league's best center duos in the NHL, which is incredibly important for winning in the playoffs, and having that reliable number one defenseman would only enhance their chances.
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What he accomplished during his rookie season, as an 18-year-old, was unprecedented: scoring 23 goals with 36 assists for 59 points in 82 games, averaging 24:41 minutes per night while playing on the top defense pairing and the top power-play unit, and filling in on the penalty kill when needed.
There's no question that Schaefer is already a top-10 defenseman in this league but just how high on that list should he be?
NHL Network has been doing its Top 20 Defensemen Right Now list, with Schaefer coming in at No. 7.
Not bad, rookie!
The @NYIslanders rookie sensation Matthew Schaefer debuts at #️⃣7️⃣ on NHL Network's Top 20 Defensemen Right Now list!
Here are the names behind Schaefer: Jake Sanderson (8), Moritz Seider (9), Evan Bouchard (10), Charlie McAvoy (11), Jaccob Slavin (12), Adam Fox (13), Brock Faber (14), Roman Josi (15), Josh Morrissey (16), Jackson LaCombe (17), Victor Hedman (18), Shea Theodore (19), and Devon Toews (20).
Here are the names in front of Schaefer: Cale Makar (1), Quinn Hughes (2), Zach Werenski (3), Rasmus Dahlin (4), Miro Heiskanen (5), and Lane Hutson (6).
Come this time next season, will Schaefer be in the top five?
While the peaks of the NHL offseason and free agency are well in the rearview mirror at this point, the Philadelphia Flyers find themselves at the center of things still, represented by some of the best remaining players still on the market.
For example, at the goalie position, veteran free agent Cam Talbot remains one of the top netminders available after an uneven stint on a mediocre Detroit Red Wings team.
Another former Flyers player among the best remaining free agents at their respective position who also played on last year's Red Wings is none other than former Flyers No. 2 overall pick James van Riemsdyk, who has carved out a late-career renaissance as an efficient depth scorer for an aspiring contender.
van Riemsdyk, 37, remains unsigned over one month after the opening of free agency despite scoring a respectable 15 goals, 16 assists, and 31 points in 72 games for the Red Wings, which he managed to achieve even while receiving a career-low average of 11:45 of ice time.
The former Flyers winger isn't quite the same player he was even in his second stint with Philadelphia, as four full seasons have now passed since van Riemsdyk's last 20-goal season, a 24-tally campaign with the Flyers in 2021-22.
Still though, van Riemsdyk is, after all, an NHL veteran of 1,154 regular season games and a seven-time 20-goal-scorer; if he still wants to continue his NHL career, he has the savvy and the experience to benefit a contender.
The Middletown, New Jersey, native has made the rounds in the Eastern Conference over the last few years, playing with four teams in as many years. After leaving the Flyers in 2023, van Riemsdyk has played with the Boston Bruins, Columbus Blue Jackets, and Detroit Red Wings.
Even those teams are a step or two removed from the likes of Florida, Colorado, Edmonton, Vegas, and Carolina.
These cap-strapped teams (with the exception of Carolina) could do worse than to nab van Riemsdyk on a cheap one-year deal to offer the wily vet one last chance at the elusive Stanley Cup.
van Riemsdyk played the bulk of his 17-year NHL career with the Flyers, scoring 146 goals, 151 assists, and 297 points in 527 games in the Orange and Black.
The Chicago Blackhawks traded for Bowen Byram ahead of the 2026 NHL Draft and then extended him to a long-term, lucrative contract that kicks in after this upcoming season. They have a lot of faith in him to become a true star.
After becoming the 4th overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft, Byram has spent his entire NHL career in the shadows of other elite defenseman. With the Colorado Avalanche, he was behind Cale Makar, and with the Buffalo Sabres, he was behind Rasmus Dahlin.
Other defenders like Devon Toews and Owen Power were also there along the way in his career, so he never had that chance to shine truly.
The Blackhawks have allowed him to be a number-one defenseman, and it’s on him now to run with that chance. The offensive forwards on the team will be mutually beneficial to his game if everything goes as planned.
Byram is not an old player by any means at 25 years old, but he is older than Wyatt Kaiser, Artyom Levshunov, and Sam Rinzel, among other players who could slot onto the blue line at some point.
On Sunday night, the list of the top 20 defensemen in the NHL was revealed by the league, and it did not include Byram. Cale Makar came in at number 1, Rasmus Dahlin was number 4, and Devon Toews rounded out the top 20, but Byram wasn’t able to crack the list.
NHL Network's Top 20 Defensemen Right Now list has a total of: • 21 total All-Star Game appearances • 11 All-Rookie team honors • Seven Norris Trophies • Seven Olympic Gold Medals • Four Calder Trophies • Two Conn Smythe Trophies • Six Stanley Cups
In 2025-26, Byram had 11 goals and 31 assists for 42 points on a Buffalo Sabres team that went to the playoffs and won a round. He was the number two option when it came to offense from the back end on the power play and at even strength and still put up good numbers, but not good enough to make the list.
So what type of numbers would he have to accumulate to make this list next year heading into his age-26 season? He is not going to be one of the league’s top defensive defenseman, but he’s good enough to complement a strong game offensively from the back end. 15 goals or more along with north of 60 points could get him a nod on the list. Surpassing 70 or more would almost guarantee it.
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NEWARK, NEW JERSEY - APRIL 21: New Jersey Devils introduce General Manager Sunny Mehta at Prudential Center on April 21, 2026 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Andrew Maclean/NHLI via Getty Images) | NHLI vis Getty Images
Here are your links for today:
Devils Links
“Given Sunny Mehta’s past career as a professional poker player, it makes sense that he talks frequently and confidently about making bets. That mindset shaped his first offseason as New Jersey Devils general manager.” [The Athletic ($)]
“All told, there are three prospects whose rights with their respective organizations expire a week to the day, and all three of them should be appealing for one way or another to the New Jersey Devils. There’s no such thing as too strong a pipeline, and the Devils have the contract space to add a few promising players.” [Infernal Access]
“Seamus Casey still has promise, but is his future as an NHLer with the New Jersey Devils?” [Devils on the Rush]
Hockey Links
A notable offseason storyline:
"I will worry about this if it's not done by the start of the season." 😳@FriedgeHNIC stopped by #NHLTonight to provide the latest on Quinn Hughes and a potential contract extension with the @mnwild.
A look at a few top value contracts around the league: [Sportsnet]
The Kings will retire Anze Kopitar’s No. 11:
ONE OF ONE. The @LAKings will retire Anze Kopitar’s No. 11 and unveil a bronze statue of the franchise’s all-time leading scorer @cryptocomarena on February 24, 2027, against the Montreal Canadiens.
Last season, after a tremendous rookie season which saw him put up 66 points, Montreal Canadiens defenseman Lane Hutson landed in 19th place on the NHL Network Top 20 Defensemen Right Now Rankings. After having an even better sophomore season, the Habs blueliner jumped 13 spots to land in sixth place on the same ranking this season. That was the biggest jump on the rankings for players who were included last season, which is hardly surprising. After his first season, many wondered if Hutson could keep it up or if the league was going to adapt with video scouting and solve him, so to speak. He’s now shown that he wasn’t a flash in the pan with a 78-point sophomore season and co-leading the Canadiens in the playoffs with 16 points in 19 games.
The NHL Network ranking also acknowledges that Hutson is more than just a one-way player, since he posted a plus-36 rating in 23:46 of average ice time, led the Habs in takeaways with 43, and was fourth in blocked shots with 137. While many naysayers believed he could never be efficient defensively in the NHL because of his size, Hutson has made it clear that he cares about playing on the other side of the puck. Nobody in the NHL backchecks with as much energy, and he never gives up on getting the puck back.
Another aspect of his game that progressed last season was his shot; he scored 12 goals in his second season after scoring just six in his first year. That’s no surprise given how much he has worked on that before and after practice, often being set up by his partner in crime Ivan Demidov for one-timers and getting plenty of advice from Adam Nicholas. With his work ethic, you can expect that shot to get even better, and that should have a big impact on the Canadiens’ power play. Once he becomes a more respected shooter, opposing sides will have to respect his shot, and they won’t be able to play him like he’ll pass every time, as is the case now.
Interestingly, New York Islanders rookie defenseman Matthew Schaefer makes his first appearance in the rankings at number seven, taking the rankings by storm. As mentioned earlier, Hutson only started in 19th place after his rookie season. The top of the rankings hasn’t changed in a year; Cale Makar, Quinn Hughes, and Zach Werenski still rule the roost. You can see the complete rankings here.
NHL Network's Top 20 Defensemen Right Now list has a total of: • 21 total All-Star Game appearances • 11 All-Rookie team honors • Seven Norris Trophies • Seven Olympic Gold Medals • Four Calder Trophies • Two Conn Smythe Trophies • Six Stanley Cups
PITTSBURGH, PA - SEPTEMBER 27: Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Owen Pickering (38) skates with the puck during the third period in the preseason NHL game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Columbus Blue Jackets on September 27, 2025, at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, PA. (Photo by Jeanine Leech/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
After an extended NHL spell during his first professional season, Owen Pickering only saw four NHL contests in 2025-26, dropping his down the rankings and leaving many questions to be answered for the former first round pick as the new season approaches.
Selected in the first round back in 2022, Owen Pickering figured to be an important piece of the Penguins blue line in the future, but now, over four years on from being drafted, that potential has not come to fruition for the young defenseman who spent most of 2025-26 in the minors with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.
Pickering made his long anticipated NHL debut during the 2024-25 season, staying with the club for over a quarter of the season, appearing in 25 games for the Penguins, scoring his first career NHL goal in the process and adding a pair of assists. There were times during this stretch where he looked the part of an NHL defenseman, but it was clear he still needed more time in the AHL and was sent back down.
After getting a taste of the NHL, it was expected that Pickering was going to battle for a full time roster spot in 2025-26, but with a crowded depth chart entering camp and questions on his NHL readiness coming from the front office, Pickering was going to need to turn in something truly special to make the opening night roster.
Ultimately, Pickering was not on the NHL roster for opening night and began the season back in the AHL, but he figured to be on the short list for a call up when injuries inevitably hit and they needed reinforcements in the NHL. That call came for Pickering pretty early in 2025-26, getting recalled to the NHL at the end of October, making his season debut for the Penguins on October 28th in Philadelphia.
His recall was brief, playing in just four games for the Penguins before being returned to Wilkes-Barre. That was the first and only call up of the season for Pickering, adding more questions than answers to where exactly his development is at this point in his career.
While Pickering saw limited time in the NHL this season, he put together a solid AHL campaign with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, playing in 68 of the team’s 72 games, scoring seven goals with 21 assists, setting career highs across the board. In the Calder Cup Playoffs, Pickering played an additional 11 games, scoring once to help the Penguins beat the Hershey Bears, but saw his season come to an untimely end due to a broken foot.
With his second pro season now in the rearview, focus turns to the future for Pickering and the Penguins where there are still many questions left to be answered about where exactly Pickering fits in with this Penguins team and where exactly his development stands.
Pickering is a left handed defenseman who played on the left side of the blue line for Wilkes-Barre Scranton last season, a position where the Penguins are currently very thin. Glancing at the NHL roster, the Penguins only have three left handed defenseman under contract for the 2026-27 season, seemingly opening the door for the former first round pick heading into the new season.
Is Pickering able to finally stake a claim for that spot? It’s a good question. By most accounts, he had a satisfactory season toward his development, largely offering a safe, reliable defensive game.
While he is a large human, Pickering isn’t overly physical. And his offensive contributions will always be limited.
But Dubas, in his season-ending media availability on May 12, declared Pickering “found his role.”
Now, it’s time for him to find a role in the NHL.
When the Penguins convene for training camp next month, Pickering will arrive hoping to lock down a full time NHL roster spot. With a lack of left handed defenseman currently on the Penguins roster, there will be a golden opportunity for Pickering to step up and show he belongs. It seems the Penguins still believe in him as a player, so the onus is on him to make this opportunity count.
Development is not linear for prospects and there are expected to be ups and downs along the way. Some fans may have found last season disappointing for Pickering, and he may likely feel the same after getting a long NHL look the season prior, followed by just a cup of tea the next time around.
This season is the final year of Pickering’s entry level deal with the Penguins and there is no better way to earn a second contract than showing up to training camp and claiming ownership to one of the available roster spots on that left side of the Penguins blue line. Pickering will be given every chance to earn that role, but it’s up to him to play like the first round pick every one thought he was four years ago.
The Islanders don’t want to rush their prospects, and as underwhelming as this offseason was, they will head into training camp about a month from now with a depth chart Victor Eklund will need to earn his way up.
This probably did not play into the rationale for keeping around Ondrej Palat, Anthony Duclair and Pierre Engvall — if so, it was a very small piece of the puzzle. But it is a good situation for Eklund’s development.
The Islanders’ depth chart on the wings ensures a competitive training camp in which Eklund will not be given a spot by default. It is also highly likely that, if Eklund isn’t part of the roster Sept. 29 in Toronto, circumstances will conspire to get him a chance sooner rather than later.
This is not a redux of Matthew Schaefer, who walked into the NHL like he was armed with a machine gun against machetes. Almost nothing is. The 19-year-old Eklund, who played most of last season with Djurgårdens, his hometown SHL club, will occupy a similar role in the upcoming training camp as Cal Ritchie did a year ago.
Victor Eklund of the New York Islanders skates against the Carolina Hurricanes while playing in his first NHL game at UBS Arena on April 14, 2026, in Elmont, New York. Getty Images
Ritchie, recall, came into camp as the obvious 24th man on an eventual 23-man roster. He excelled throughout and made it obvious he would be in the NHL sooner rather than later before a minor injury spared the Islanders from making what would have been an incredibly tough, albeit inevitable, decision to send him to Bridgeport. He ultimately played one game in the AHL before being promoted, and spent the season with the Islanders.
Should Eklund follow a similar path, his 2026-27 season would be a rousing success.
“I think the question is not if he’s going to be able to play in the NHL. The question is how much can you get out from him to his maximum, if you know what I mean,” Michael Holmqvist, a Djurgårdens assistant coach and Eklund family friend, told The Post on Sunday, “because I think a lot of players can survive playing and doing the job, getting the pucks out, getting the pucks deep and stuff like that and be an energy guy. But I think there’s a lot more to Vic than just being that.
“So the question for me is, what’s the best thing for him to do right now? Is it to work himself into the NHL right away and trust the process, stuff like that? Or get more time practicing his offensive game. I think that’s the question for the Islanders.”
Eklund, along with Anton Frondell, Viggo Björck and fellow Islanders prospect Calle Odelius, has been practicing with Djurgårdens recently as SHL training camp has picked up. He’s put on a few pounds of muscle, and that will need to continue being a theme as he grows.
Victor Eklund (73) of the New York Islanders records his first NHL assist in his first game on a second-period goal by Bo Horvat (14) against the Carolina Hurricanes on April 14, 2026, at UBS Arena in Elmont, New York. For Horvat, the goal was his 300th in the NHL. Getty Images
Even with a wiry frame, 5-foot-11 and 170 pounds, he has a terrific reputation for winning puck battles and one-on-ones along the boards. There is some question whether he’ll need more muscle for it to translate to the NHL, but, Holmqvist said, he wondered the same when Eklund went from the Allsvenskan — Sweden’s second division — to the SHL, only for his compete level to keep shining through.
Eventually, that relentlessness could translate into Eklund being an effective net-front player, something the Islanders desperately need with Anders Lee’s exit. There is still, though, a long way to go.
“I talked about that three days ago with him,” Holmqvist said. “Because we talked about it last year to find that spot and that’s probably where he’s going to find most of his goals and points. So he’s aware of it, but he needs someone to be there every day and remind, remind, remind..”
What the finished product looks like is a question that won’t be answered this year. For an Islanders club in transition, that’s perfectly fine. They have the luxury of being able to cater to what’s best for their prospects. As for what that is?
“I think the next couple months will tell,” Holmqvist said.
It's officially another season, another prospects ranking for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
In years past, this has been a bit easier of an exercise, as there used to be a more clear-cut line between prospects with NHL upside and longshots. However, because of the work that general manager and president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas and his staff have put in during the last several years, the line is blurring a whole lot more - and there is a substantially higher volume of talent in the system.
This time around, making a top-20 list was challenging. So, a few criteria were put into place: To make our list, prospects must be under the age of 26 and have played less than 50 NHL games. This excludes names such as Ben Kindel, Filip Hallander, Oliver Okuliar, and Alexander Alexeyev.
At No. 16, we shed light on goaltender Joel Blomqvist, who is entering a critical season in his development and in his career. For No. 17, we spotlight a newly drafted center whose development situation is still several years removed from being "critical" - and who must explore who he is as a player separate from his twin brother.
Unless you've been living under a rock for the past two months, you're probably well-aware by now that the Penguins selected a set of identical twins in this year's draft.
The Rucks, Markus and Liam, are attached at the hip. They like the same things (aside from differing opinions on ketchup), have the same friends, travel together, and play hockey together - which, by the way, they're very, very good at.
Liam was selected first at 22nd overall, then came Markus in the second round at 39th overall. Both are committed to return to the Medicine Hat Tigers of the WHL for one more season before heading off to the University of North Dakota for the 2027-28 season, and they will likely continue to play together throughout that time.
But, today, it's Markus's turn on our list. And even if he is the de facto playmaker between the brothers, there is still a whole lot of untapped offensive potential there.
Even if Liam was selected first, it was actually Markus who led the WHL in scoring last season with 21 goals and 108 points in 68 games as, mostly, a 17-year-old. A cerebral, skilled passer and playmaker, Markus is largely a tactical distributor, and he's really, really good at it. He has the ability to thread seam passes through the tightest of spaces and excels off the rush and on the power play, using his vision to gain the upper hand on opponents.
But underrated is Markus's shot, which may not play quite as well as Liam's but is a weapon on its own. His release has a hint of deceptiveness, but he's typically the one to defer. If he can really start capitalizing on his own shot as opposed to deferring - especially when it comes to non-Liam linemates - he will be all the better for it.
The skating definitely has to improve if Markus is going to make it at the NHL level, and especially if he's going to make it as a center. And, like most young players, he has to add some weight as well. He isn't afraid to mix it up if need be, either.
It will also be interesting to see how he fares without Liam on his wing, as the twins are not guaranteed to have the same timing development-wise. Markus appears cerebral enough to be able to adapt to the wingers he's deployed with, which will be an important thing once they make the jump to professional hockey.
All in all, Markus may not have the ceiling that his brother does, and he has not yet shown elite goal-scoring ability. But Dubas and the Penguins love to collect players with high hockey IQs, and Markus is no exception. He may be several years out, but keep an eye on his development and whether or not he finds a way to elevate his goal-scoring and locate his shot a bit better.
