After missing all of training camp and the preseason because of an offseason training injury, as well as the first two games of the 2026-27 season, Detroit Red Wings forward Dylan Larkin now has six games under his belt.
Larkin scored a goal and added an assist in his season debut during Detroit's 5-3 win over the Ottawa Senators on Oct. 6. He has since added another assist, coming in the Red Wings' 2-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Oct. 15.
However, he hasn't quite looked like himself yet, going without a goal in his last five games while also committing a handful of uncharacteristic turnovers.
Is Larkin still feeling the effects of his original injury, or is he simply playing catch-up after missing so much time during training camp and the preseason? According to head coach Todd McLellan, it's the latter.
"I don't know about it if he is; I haven't been told anything from him or the trainers," he responded when asked if Larkin is still dealing with an injury. "But his injury prevented him from doing what everybody does right before camp, a month before you really ramp it up. The skates become more intense; body contact begins.
You play in tighter areas, you stop and start more than when you skate in late July, because you're taking it up."
The NHL regular season is even more of a grind now with 84 games being played. Because of the shortened Training Camp and preseason schedule, all players had quicker acclimations to the new season.
Unfortunately for Larkin, who wasn't able to participate in Camp or any of Detroit's four preseason games, it's been baptism by fire.
"Everybody knew that camp was short this year, so I think the summer skates became a little more important," McLellan said. "He had none of that, so he's playing catch-up. He simply is."
Regardless, the Red Wings are going to hope for Larkin to contribute more regularly on offense as they embark on a four-game road swing that begins on Tuesday against the Seattle Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena.
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During Monday's episode of his 32 Thoughts podcast, NHL insider Elliotte Friedman gave a lengthy update on the situation between the Winnipeg Jets and superstar goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, revealing new details about how the standoff has unfolded.
According to Friedman, the 33-year-old was not simply sitting out of the Jets lineup. He was suspended by the team, even though he had informed the club around the season opener that he was ready to return with the suspension running through this Friday, October 23rd.
"Because he had left them and not shown up without permission, the Jets had some added power under the CBA, where they could give him a suspension of reasonable length," Friedman explained. He said the league and the Players Association settled on a window of roughly two and a half to three weeks for what counts as reasonable.
That leaves the Jets with a new deadline and three options. They can trade Hellebuyck before Friday. They can keep him out of the lineup while paying him, since a team cannot bar a player under contract from playing and also withhold his pay. Or, most intriguingly, they can welcome him back in the Jets lineup.
Friedman does not expect Hellebuyck to play anytime soon as days after the suspension expires on Saturday, October 25th, Winnipeg hosts the Montreal Canadiens in the Heritage Classic at Princess Auto Stadium. Friedman said the organization does not want the Hellebuyck storyline to overshadow the outdoor game.
The following Tuesday, the Jets host the Florida Panthers, a date that will likely carry the storyline into the next week and could mark a Hellebuyck return if Winnipeg's leadership decides it is the right call.
How the Jets proceed is still up for debate as Friedman again said he believes general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff will not accept a bad trade for the three-time Vezina Trophy winner. If no deal materializes, the question becomes whether the team and its leadership would welcome Hellebuyck back or have him sit out with pay.
Friedman and former NHLers Kevin Bieksa and Luke Gazdic, his colleagues on the Sportsnet panel, disagreed on the point with Friedman saying he does not believe the players would want Hellebuyck back, while Gazdic argued that the goaltender would be welcomed back given his experience and that it would benefit the team.
The Jets are currently 4-2-2 with a 3.00 goals-against average, a mark that sits in the middle of the pack in the NHL. Combining Hellebuyck with Stuart Skinner, who has been Winnipeg's starter this season, could give the Jets their best goaltending tandem in years.
A return would not be unprecedented as elsewhere in the NHL this season, Dylan Larkin, who requested a trade from the Detroit Red Wings, was not granted one and returned to the team with his captaincy removed. Friedman likened Larkin's situation to a "weird limbo," in which a player waits for a trade while playing out the season, and said Hellebuyck could do the same.
When Larkin came back, he played as well as he could and won back some favor in Hockeytown. If Hellebuyck follows that path in Winnipeg, it raises the question of whether Jets fans would soften their stance on the Olympic gold medalist.
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After the San Jose Sharks' loss to the Boston Bruins, a dejected Luca Cagnoni spoke to the media following a disappointing performance on both a team and individual level. He was then going to be a healthy scratch against the Nashville Predators in the Sharks' next game, but Darnell Nurse wasn't ready to go and he drew into the lineup, recording the second-lowest ice time amongst Sharks defensemen. Then, when the Sharks went to Detroit to face the Red Wings, he was out of the lineup.
Tonight, the Sharks are set to face the Toronto Maple Leafs and he's back in the mix.
Cagnoni's performance against Boston was certainly one he'll want to forget. "[It was] not very good," he said." A couple bad bounces, but gotta be better."
Analytically, the data backed up Cagnoni's assessment of the game as HockeyStatCards' Game Score Breakdown had him listed as by far the worst performing player on the ice:
With that being said, Cagnoni is a 21-year-old, 5-foot-9 defenseman playing in the NHL. Outside of rare exceptions like Lane Hutson with the Montreal Canadiens, there are going to be growing pains. "It's frustrating, but [it's a] long season, I guess," Cagnoni added.
So far, Cagnoni's rookie season has had exorbitant highs and very low lows. His first career NHL goal was an overtime winner, the type of goal that kids dream of scoring in their driveways. Just a few weeks later, he had the worst showing of his young career. With that being said, Cagnoni has overcome significant odds to even reach this point, so it wouldn't be wise to bet against him moving forward. He's shown glimpses of how valuable he can be in the long-run, he just needs to find consistency and he'll get there.
Ten years to the day that the first two picks in the 2016 NHL Draft, Auston Matthews and Patrik Laine, faced one another for the first time in the NHL, the first picks in the 2026 NHL Draft will do the same. Tonight, we'll see San Jose Sharks forward Ivar Stenberg face off against the only player picked ahead of him at the draft: Gavin McKenna.
Stenberg and McKenna are two of the favorites to win the Calder Trophy this season, alongside Anton Frondell and Michael Brandsegg-Nygard:
With that being said, Stenberg and McKenna are the youngest players in the race as well. They're the only players from the 2026 draft class to record a point in the NHL at this point and only five players were able to crack an NHL roster right after the draft in general. Points wise, Stenberg and McKenna are on a similar pace. Both have scored two goals so far, but Stenberg has six points compared to McKenna's five, despite the Maple Leafs forward having an extra game played.
Despite being the most effective part of their game to this point in the season, the Sharks won't be able to rely on special teams to help them in Toronto. The Maple Leafs have a nearly perfect penalty kill through nine games, as they lead the league with a 96.4% success rate. Their power play isn't anything to disregard either, as they've converted on 26.7% of man advantages, the seventh best rate in the NHL.
The Maple Leafs do have a few major injuries though. Chris Tanev and John Tavares are amongst those on the injured reserve and William Nylander is set to be a game-time decision due to an illness that kept him out of the morning skate.
Toronto's Matthews has scored at nearly a goal-per-game pace against the Sharks in his career, lighting the lamp 14 times in 16 games. If Nylander is out due to his illness, that'll be huge for the Sharks as well considering he has 21 points in 16 games against the team in teal. Surprisingly, defenseman Nick Blankenburg also scores against the Sharks at a high rate, with five points in six games.
As for the Sharks, captain Macklin Celebrini has just two points in four games against the Maple Leafs and has yet to score a goal. Mason Marchment and Alex Wennberg have had considerable success against Toronto throughout their careers. Michael Misa, who had one point against the Maple Leafs in his only appearance against his hometown team, is the only player on the Sharks who has scored at a point-per-game pace against the Leafs.
Sergei Bobrovsky is expected to be in net for the Maple Leafs, and he's been dominant against San Jose. In 23 games, he has a 15-6-2 record with a .932 save percentage and a 2.25 goals against average. Yaroslav Askarov, who will be starting for the Sharks, has yet to play the Maple Leafs in his short career.
The Buffalo Sabres returned to home after a mildly successful road trip involving Atlantic Division foes, earning four of a possible six points in an overtime and shootout loss to the Montreal Canadiens and a 5-4 overtime victory against the Toronto Maple Leafs. The club practiced at KeyBank Center on Monday morning and had defenseman Rasmus Dahlin back.
The Sabres team captain was injured one week ago against Florida on an offensive zone faceoff early in the second period while winding up for a slapshot on Panthers goalie Akira Schmid. After a week of treatment on the unspecified injury, Dahlin feels ready to go.
"I knew it wasn't gonna be long. Let's just say that. I didn't think it was gonna take a full week," Dahlin said after practice. ready. "I think I'll be ready, and we'll see here (on Tuesday) and go from there."
Owen Power leads Sabres defensemen in scoring and has a pair of overtime winners.
Buffalo without Dahlin fell behind in all three games against the Canadiens and Leafs, but came back in each contest, something Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff says shows how resilient his club is.
"We we're able to handle some of the adversity we've been in, whether it's getting behind in games, whether it's maybe some key personnel being out. Giving the other team the lead is not easy to always play from (behind) ." Ruff said. " I think we've learned that , if we stick to our game, we can get back in it……We've done the right thing. We've been rewarded, and we've found ways to win games."
Ruff also provided an update on some of the other players who are dinged up.
On Justin Danforth
"He's just got a little bit of an upper body. We kept him off the ice with just did some work with him and (we'll) see how he is."
On Tyson Kozak
"Kozak (was) his first time back at practice (after suffering an upper body injury). Just got a look at him today again, too. I thought he did well ."
The Sabres take on Philadelphia on Wednesday before heading on the road to play Washington and the three California clubs.
The Chicago Blackhawks have a budding star in Anton Frondell. Through the first 9 games of his 2026-27 season, he has 1 goal and 5 assists for 6 points. He is not going to be a point-per-game player as a rookie, in all likelihood, but he can be among the leading rookies in terms of scoring. Frondell has 15 points in 21 games played, going back to his NHL debut late last season. Right now, he has to be considered in the Calder Trophy race for the league's top rookie.
What makes Frondell an extra special player is his attention to the defensive side of the game. He wants to be as good a two-way player as there is in the NHL. There will be bumps and bruises along the way in his development, but he's already on a great track.
Over the last handful of games, Frondell has been put out there in some incredibly difficult matchups. He's gone up against superstars like Sidney Crosby, Mark Scheifele, and Wyatt Johnston, and he's done a good job against all of them.
"For me, getting trusted in those areas of the game," Frondell said about what he likes most about being in that role. "Playing Crosby was awesome. For me, just a dream. As I said, getting trusted by the coach, going and taking those faceoffs against their top line a couple of times is something I try to do the best way I can."
With Connor Bedard back from injury and everyone else pretty healthy up front, it seems like the Blackhawks have played much better as a unit. The game against Dallas was lousy, but that came after two solid performances against teams like the Pittsburgh Penguins and Winnipeg Jets. Frondell is a big part of that with the skill set he brings.
Frondell alluded to having "a big group" as a reason why they can sustain an injury that could keep a guy out of the lineup for an extended period. He said it's a good feeling.
This is a different environment for Frondell compared to his playing days in Sweden. The systems are different, the people are different, and they play significantly more games in the NHL. According to him, the number of games is the biggest adjustment that has to be made compared to what he had to deal with last year.
"It's more games that we play, the longer season, and how tight the schedule is, compared to Sweden, where we only play 52, and there are 84 [here]," Frondell said." That's probably something I'll notice going forward."
Sometimes, the extra amount of games can cause rookies to hit a wall at certain points of the season. Frondell may not be immune to that, but he is already mentally prepared for that reality. He is more than equipped with the tools needed to get around some of the hardships that come with playing a full NHL schedule.
It won't be long before Frondell is the team's go-to two-way center. Connor Bedard is the guy that you build around because of how unbelievable gifted he is offensively, but Frondell is the type of center needed for big matchups. Having a duo like this will allow them each to get the most out of their abilities.
"He's got a really good ability to check for offense, and he's still just growing and learning," head coach Jeff Blashill said of Frondell. "He's just at the cusp of what he's going to be, and he's still a really young kid."
Coming up are games against teams with more high-end centers to match up against. Some of the opposing coaches will do their best to get those matchups against Bedard, but the Blackhawks, especially at home, will do what they can to get Frondell those assignments as well.
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The Toronto Maple Leafs recalled forward Vinni Lettieri and goaltender Artur Akhtyamov ahead of their matchup against the San Jose Sharks on Monday night.
This will be Lettieri's first NHL game since April 2025, and his debut with the Maple Leafs since joining the organization in 2025-26.
Akhtyamov has joined the NHL club for the first time this season. He made his NHL debut last season, playing three games for the Maple Leafs. But in this stint, there's no guarantee that he'll see the ice for this upcoming back-to-back.
Maple Leafs head coach Jim Hiller explained what Akhtyamov's role will be to start the week and why he was called up.
"We got a back-to-back," Hiller said after morning skate. "So he'll back up the next couple nights, and then we'll give (Sergei Bobrovsky) the start tonight, and (Anthony Stolarz) will play tomorrow, and they'll get some rest."
Akhtyamov, 24, hasn't had the hottest start in the AHL with the Toronto Marlies. In three games, he's posted an .822 save percentage and a 2.94 goals-against average with a 2-1-0 record.
As for Lettieri, he's been excellent for the Marlies in the first five games of his campaign. In that stretch, he scored three goals and nine points. The 31-year-old also had 14 goals and 42 points in 55 American League games last season.
Hiller hasn't known Lettieri for very long, given this is his first season behind the bench for Toronto, but the AHL veteran made a lasting impression on him at training camp.
"Lettieri, I think we talked about him a little bit in training camp, really impressed me," Hiller said. "I remember being on the ice with the second group, and he was just working. It really, really caught my eye right away. I'm sure he wanted to be with the big group and feel like he had a fair chance of making the team. Terrific attitude, skilled, but just his work ethic and his passion really caught me."
The Leafs are looking to snap a three-game losing streak, coming off a 4-1 defeat against the New York Islanders on Saturday. With that in mind, Lettieri slotted in as the right winger on the third line with Colton Sissons and Gavin McKenna.
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SAN DIEGO, CA — When a car's tires start balding, it’s prudent to replace them, or at least get a comprehensive check, since alignment could be the issue. Well, for an NHL franchise, the diagnosis could be either that easy or rather complicated. It seems rather layered, but not that complicated at all for the Los Angeles Kings. They hired Peter Laviolette, a legitimately good signing, to take the helm for a team needing a first-year boost from an new NHL bench boss, and promised an offense that opens up from the back end despite the same set of faces. The team then sold fans on Artemi Panarin and Kevin Fiala sharing a roster and a powerplay unit for a full year.
Six games in, the Kings are 0-4-2 and the only team in the NHL without a win. Saturday's 4-1 loss to Boston gave them their longest winless start since the 1984-85 team opened 0-6-3. Oh, and by the way, Fiala hasn't played a game yet.
The details are actually much worse than the record. The Kings have scored exactly one goal in each of their last four games after their track meet show-and-tell road opener against the Avalanche. Over the five games after their licking to the Avs, they have averaged 2.2 goals for and 4.2 goals against, killed 57.9 percent of their penalties, and got sub-.860 save percentages from both Darcy Kuemper and Anton Forsberg.
The optimism here can boil down to the fact that six games out of 84 don't decide a season. This start is not a slump, though the signs of damming the bloodshed don’t look promising. It is the logical output of roster management that never got fixed, and the question it forces is simple: how deep does the hole get before the individuals at the very top who dug it admit they are in one?
A team that played not to lose
Last season already told a not-so-compelling story. The Kings finished 35-27-20 and set an NHL record for losses past regulation, which doesn't sing the praises of an elite club, even though Vegas nipped at the heels of that record last season. Despite a DJ Smith interim session that became more bearable to watch in the final stretch, strip out the loser points and you're left with a 35-47 team nowhere near the playoffs.
An incessantly weak Pacific Division handed them the second wild card despite calls for a potential rebuild, or at least a heavy retool. Then the Presidents' Trophy Colorado Avalanche swept them in four games, outscoring them 13-5. It was the fifth straight first-round exit for this ‘contender’.
That team played like it was trying not to lose, and it got exactly the results that approach earns. Management looked at that season and called this roster a contender, echoing past seasons of being ‘close’ despite never being in the same air as that term.
The coaching lever is already pulled
When a team stalls this hard and if it prolongs, the typical first move is usually behind the bench. But in this instance, the Kings already made it. Jim Hiller lost his job last season, DJ Smith finished it as interim, and Peter Laviolette arrived this summer.
That leaves management without its easiest scapegoat. Laviolette has coached six games. Firing him now would not only be disastrous, but would also admit the problem was never the coach, and the Kings are locked into his plan whether it fits this roster or not.
Laviolette said the Kings would open up offensively from the back end. Holland inherited a poor schematic, but that doesn't excuse him for handing Laviolette the same back end that became dead weight last season. The system changed, but the personnel running it did not.
Inherited mistakes, compounded
Rob Blake left Ken Holland a roster layered with bad decisions. Blake paid real assets for Pierre-Luc Dubois and gave him an eight-year deal, then had to swap him for Darcy Kuemper a year later, a previous theme he relied on: making recuperation-style moves to fix his poor ones (see Cal Peterson’s). He held Matt Roy at the deadline and watched him walk for nothing, since, once again, the team built that season was ‘right there’.
A new general manager inherits those decisions. His job is to correct them and instead, Holland compounded them.
Vladislav Gavrikov and Jordan Spence were moved out of a blue line that needed both; then the holes were patched with Cody Ceci and Brian Dumoulin. Phillip Danault, one of, if not the most important, pieces that pulled the Kings out of purgatory in 2021, asked out and returned to Montreal. The Kings walked away from Andrei Kuzmenko.
This summer Holland doubled down on age. He signed Erik Haula at 35, Mats Zuccarello at 39, and gave Corey Perry a second stop at 41. These moves typically boost a roster on a contender run, not integral roster pieces. The Kings are now amongst the oldest rosters in the league. Every move, with some limited exceptions, threaded a small needle. None of them changed the team's shape.
The blueline Holland kept
Kings defensemen scored 23 goals last season, last in the NHL, and their 133 points ranked 30th. It is the clearest weakness on the roster, and it is the one Holland touched least while bringing on Laviolette to attempt to pry more out of an outdated group.
His answer was Erik Gustafsson, a 34-year-old on a one-year, $1 million deal who spent most of last season with AHL Grand Rapids and played two NHL games. Gustafsson moves the puck, and he has history with Laviolette. But again, the solution is a seventh defenseman profile, not a fix. The core personnel remains unchanged from the season before.
So the Kings keep trusting the Drew Doughty factory. Doughty is the 15th captain in franchise history, and none of this knocks on him wearing the C. Change the captain and the problem stays the same: Laviolette runs a system built on mobility and creation with the league's least mobile, least creative D corps. It is a listless sail on a ship that will not move.
Panarin and a closing window
Holland's best move fell into his lap. Artemi Panarin asked out of New York and made it clear Los Angeles was the only place he would go. That narrowed the market to one buyer and handcuffed Rangers GM Chris Drury. Holland did not have to outbid anyone. The Kings landed Panarin in February for prospect Liam Greentree and a conditional third-round pick, with New York retaining half his salary. Holland then extended him two years at $11 million per season, through 2027-28.
That trade bought a window, not a solution. Panarin is approaching 35. Players at that age depreciate faster, and the risk of a drop-off climbs sharply starting next season. This season and last were supposed to be the best of his time in L.A for the Panarin show. He is the only Kings skater with more than one goal this year.
The compounding poor decisions over time has an already fringe franchise in a spotlight for league’s worst.
Even worse, top down, there is almost a benign sense of urgency/ownership over this.
The rest of the roster has not met him there. The Panarin-Fiala power-play pairing that headlined the offseason hasn't happened in a single regular-season game. Anze Kopitar retired, and the Kings have no succession plan at center. I still stand by Quinton Byfield as the center to build around, but his two points against San Jose are his only production so far, which has soured my previous outlook on his runway this season. One young center and some quality wingers do not make a contender.
Is Connor Hellebuyck the answer?
The newest idea swirling around social media was a goaltender. Seravalli reported on Oct. 15 that the Kings kicked the tires on Connor Hellebuyck, that Holland at least understands Winnipeg's price, and that Hellebuyck would accept a trade to Los Angeles. He carries an $8.5 million cap hit with five years left.
Since last season, the goaltending has become a real problem. Kuemper sits at an .847 save percentage, and Forsberg at .853. A three-time Vezina winner might boost those numbers even while icing a slow defensive corps in front of him.
What he wouldn’t fix is the rest. He doesn't score the goals the Kings cannot score, and he certainly doesn’t move the puck out of the zone, rescue the league's worst combined special teams, or make the roster younger. Seravalli himself notes that if the slide continues, putting a 2027 or 2028 first in the package gets hard to justify. Trading futures for a 33-year-old goalie to prop up one of the league's oldest rosters isn't a correction. It is the same reflex that built this team: spend to contend, and never ask whether you should.
How deep is the hole?
It seems to be a recurring theme over the last four seasons, but the Kings sit at an inflection point, and it can still be a good one. A franchise only changes course when the evidence becomes impossible to explain away. Six games, one goal a night, and a historic winless start is that evidence.
Management, from the top down, will not entertain the word rebuild. So it keeps pushing the same buttons: a coaching change, a veteran signing, a star on a short window, and now a goalie with five years left. Each one treats a symptom, but none of them treats the roster as it should.
The team says it is here to contend, but in every literal sense of inverse opposition, the standings say last place. At some point those two statements cannot both stand, and someone in that front office has to look down and measure how deep the hole really is. How bad does it need to get for things to change?
In his first three games with the Montreal Canadiens this season, Jacob Fowler was beaten by a few close, deflected shots, and the coaching staff didn’t miss it. On Saturday morning at the Bell Centre, goalie coach Marco Marcianno worked with his goalies on screened shots, explaining the theory before putting it to the test with help from some players. Meanwhile, Martin St-Louis, who generally doesn’t get involved with the goaltenders’ training, stood close by at their end of the ice and watched Fowler and Jakub Dobes be put through their paces.
In the game against the Buffalo Sabres, Fowler performed better on screened shots; somehow, he managed to remain square to the shot despite not necessarily being able to see the puck. His positioning and instinct did the rest; at times, he was so well positioned that the puck hit him, and when he couldn’t freeze it right away, someone was always there to clear the front of the net.
He improved from that standpoint; of course, his game wasn’t perfect, and a couple of instances could have been stopped with an active stick, but as Martin St-Louis often says, perfection is not possible. In the end, Fowler made 20 saves on 23 shots, for an .870 save percentage. While he found a way to win, that may allow St-Louis to put Dobes in net against the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday night, although the Czech netminder has lost his two career games against them.
The coach may decide to wait until the Canadiens are on their four-game road trip to give Dobes another game. Montreal will play in Chicago on Friday, Winnipeg on Sunday for the Heritage Classic, St. Louis on Tuesday, and Dallas on Thursday. Both goalies will need to play during that span, and it’ll be interesting to see who gets the nod for the outside game, since players generally like playing in those games.
The Rangers’ first potential reinforcement has arrived.
Veteran center Luke Glendening signed a professional tryout agreement with the Blueshirts on Monday, The Post first reported. The signing comes on the heels of fourth-line center Joe Veleno going on long-term injured reserve for three to three-and-a-half months with a lower-body injury.
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The 37-year-old Glendening played for the Devils and Flyers last season. After turning a PTO into a one-year contract in Newark, the Devils waived Glendening in March and he was claimed by Philadelphia.
He posted two goals, seven assists and a 52.9 faceoff win percentage in 70 games between the two clubs.
A veteran of over 930 games, Glendening spent the first eight seasons of his NHL career playing for his home team, the Red Wings. He has since made stops in Dallas, Tampa Bay, New Jersey and Philly.
As of this season, a mid-season PTO lasts for a maximum of 10 days under the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Players aren’t allowed to play in games.
The Rangers have signed Luke Glendening to a PTO. NHLI via Getty Images
If another NHL team makes a contract offer during the PTO, his team has a right of first refusal to match the contract within 48 hours.
The one-year contract Glendening signed with the Devils last year was worth the league minimum of $775,000. This season, the league minimum is $850,000.
With injuries quickly beginning to pile up, the Philadelphia Flyers have turned to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, tapping two exciting forward prospects for NHL call-ups ahead of Monday night's game against the Colorado Avalanche.
On Sunday, the Flyers made an interesting roster move, shorting themselves a healthy forward by sending center Jack Studnicka down to the AHL and re-calling defenseman Hunter McDonald, rather than another forward, while also placing Cam York on injured reserve and assigning Helge Grans to the Phantoms.
To solve the puzzle, though, the Flyers made the state of the roster clearer on Monday, as they re-called wingers Alex Bump and Cole Knuble from the Phantoms, filling the two vacant roster spots left by the demotions of Studnicka and Grans.
Bump and Knuble are both expected to play against the Avalanche on Monday night, with the latter in line to make his NHL debut having just over a dozen games of professional experience.
Knuble, 22, has a goal, three assists, and four points in six AHL games this season, featuring as a top-line winger for John Snowden's Phantoms.
Bump, who started the season on the Flyers' roster, has scored a goal in each of the five AHL games he's played this season, erupting for a total of seven goals, an assist, and eight points.
The 22-year-old last played for the Flyers in their third game of the season, a 3-2 overtime loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Oct. 3. Prior to that, though, Bump had been benched by Tocchet in a 3-2 overtime loss to the New Jersey Devils on Oct. 1.
But, with Travis Konecny still on injured reserve and Owen Tippett and Tyson Foerster nursing upper-body injuries, the Flyers are in desperate need of healthy wingers with scoring talent, and they've made their moves, replacing Studnicka.
It is also currently unclear if Sean Couturier will play against Colorado on Monday, which could make for even more opportunities for Bump and Knuble if the Flyers' captain has to sit out.
With the Flyers getting hit hard by injuries, Bump, Knuble, Jacob Gaucher and Hunter McDonald were called up. Rick Tocchet said there’s a “good possibility” Bump and Knuble play Monday when the Flyers host the Avalanche at Xfinity Mobile Arena (7 p.m. ET/NBCSP). It’s uncertain if Gaucher or McDonald will play.
For Knuble, it would be his NHL debut. And a pretty cool one. He’ll be playing for the team he grew up watching. His father Mike Knuble played 338 career regular-season games for the Flyers over two stints with the club.
“I’ve been a fan of this team my whole life,” Knuble said Monday after morning skate, “so I think it’s extra special.”
Some of his childhood was spent at this arena.
“I probably remember the family lounge more and playing mini sticks with my brother,” Knuble said. “But I remember little things — Peco power play was around, so all of that stuff.”
Knuble has been a riser in the Flyers’ system. The 22-year-old forward had a strong camp and preseason. With the Phantoms, he had a goal, three assists and 19 shots in six games.
“I’m going to bring energy and compete,” Knuble said. “I’m going to be moving every shift.”
Nathan MacKinnon and the Avalanche are in town. Colorado is scoring 4.50 goals per game.
Bump scored a blistering seven goals (two of them empty-netters) in five games with Lehigh Valley. He also collected an assist and fired 27 shots.
“Try to make it hard on them to keep me down there,” Bump said.
The 22-year-old winger was scoreless with four shots for the Flyers.
“Building the confidence again,” Bump said. “I think I kind of got away from my game up here, so I think it was good for me to go back down and just kind of find it and play freely.”
On the Flyers’ injury front, Travis Konecny (lower body), Owen Tippett (upper body), Rasmus Ristolainen (left hand) and Cam York (upper body) have been ruled out against Colorado.
Sean Couturier and Tyson Foerster are game-time decisions. Both missed practice Sunday, but they tested things out on the ice at Monday’s optional skate. Couturier is banged up but could be good to go. Foerster, though, did not look real comfortable testing out his right hand.
The 24-year-old winger blocked a shot in the Flyers’ 3-1 win Saturday night over the Senators. At one point Monday, he left morning skate, but he then returned for some more work.
Tyson Foerster testing out his right hand. He took a shot there last game and missed practice Sunday.
After this, he talked to the trainer. He shook his head slightly, doesn’t look like it feels great for him. He ended up leaving skate just now. pic.twitter.com/YwgSrMmfM7
The Flyers (1-6-3) have a tall order against the Avalanche (5-2-1), a high-powered team that’s scoring 4.50 goals per game.
“The best way against that team is you’ve got to protect the middle of the ice and you’ve got to be aggressive,” Tocchet said. “You play Colorado or these teams, you don’t back up. It’s the opposite, you want to be aggressive, you want to squash a play.”
These moves come as Toronto is in the midst of a three-game losing streak, with a 4-1 defeat to the New York Islanders on Saturday.
The San Jose Sharks are in town for a Monday night clash. It's possible that Lettieri makes his debut for the Maple Leafs, which would be his first NHL appearance since April 2025.
The 31-year-old has had a great start to the AHL season with the Toronto Marlies. He's notched three goals and nine points in five minor-league games.
As for Akhtyamov, appearing in the NHL this season was inevitable given the Calder Cup run he had in the American League last year.
The 24-year-old netminder played 22 games and registered a .923 save percentage and a 2.22 goals-against average. That performance earned him the title of AHL playoff MVP.
The Russian goalie hasn't been off to such a great start this season, numbers-wise. In three games for the Marlies, he's posted an .882 SP and a 2.94 GAA while earning a 2-1-0 record. He's been splitting starts with the other goaltender, Samuel Hlavaj, who also has a 2-1-0 record, but with a .870 SP and a 3.01 GAA.
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PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA - DECEMBER 07: Trevor Zegras #46 of the Philadelphia Flyers takes a shot on goal against Nathan MacKinnon #29 of the Colorado Avalanche at the Xfinity Mobile Arena on December 7, 2025 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Len Redkoles/NHLI via Getty Images) | NHLI via Getty Images
After a weekend off, the Colorado Avalanche embark on another back-to-back on a brief two-game road trip to begin the week.
Their first stop takes them to Philadelphia to meet a Flyers team that’s having some early season struggles to say the least.
Colorado Avalanche (5-2-1)
The Opponent: Philadelphia Flyers (1-6-3)
Time: 5:00 P.M. MDT/7:00 P.M. EDT
Watch: ALT, ALT+ (Avalanche Local Broadcast Area), NBCSP (Philadelphia Local Broadcast Area), ESPN+, NHL Center Ice (Outside Regional Broadcast Areas – US), SN+, NHL Centre Ice (Outside Regional Broadcast Areas – Canada)
Listen: Altitude Sports Radio KKSE-FM 92.5 FM
Colorado Avalanche
The Avs head into today’s game fresh off clearing one of their biggest hurdles of the young season. They earned three of a possible four points in a split of a home and home set against Dallas, and put together an unanswered five-goal rally to defeat the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday. Mackenzie Blackwood earned wins in Dallas and at home against Pittsburgh, while Scott Wedgewood couldn’t prevail in the shootout versus Dallas in Denver.
Martin Nečas helped provide the offense in Dallas with a pair of goals, while two goals from Artturi Lehkonen sparked the comeback effort against Pittsburgh. T.J. Hughes also scored his NHL career on Friday, which he scored after Nathan MacKinnon fed him a perfect pass to redirect past Pittsburgh goaltender Artus Šilovs.
“That first one feels incredible to get that first one in,” Hughes said in postgame comments. “I think the power play just expired […] Great pass by [MacKinnon], just nice to finish it off.”
In another first, Friday’s game marked the debut of new Avalanche assistant head coach Brett McLean. McLean, who replaced David Hakstol, will face the challenge of revamping a power play that has been woefully anemic over the past couple of years. As McLean acclimates to his new role with his one-time former club, changes that go beyond simple personnel swaps like we’ve seen implemented over the past couple of games leading up to Hakstol’s departure (exchanging Nečas for Jaden Schwartz on the top unit, for example) should be on the horizon.
Head coach Jared Bednar highlighted the struggles his team has had in putting together a full sixty minute effort over the past few games. “We’re having a tough time putting together a full sixty,” he said in postgame comments on Friday. “I look at Toronto; I didn’t like a period against Toronto. I didn’t like the first in Dallas. I didn’t like the second at home against Dallas. But, when we decide to play, and play the right way with the right level of—you know, for me, it’s intensity and discipline—then we’re a really good team, and we’re playing well. We have to find a way to just get it there for sixty minutes.”
Gavin Brindley was called up from Loveland on Wednesday to take the place of the injured Zachary L’Heureux. While Bednar said Brindley has showed well since being called back up, he pointed to Brindley’s performance prior to the start of the season which earned him his call-up. “The reason he’s up is because he had a great training camp and a great exhibition,” Bednar explained on Saturday, “and we have the leeway with him to be able to send him down. That’s just the situation he’s in, and we’re going to do what’s best for our team long term, not just for the right now.”
Bednar also stated that L’Heureux and Nicolas Roy were considered “week-to-week”, but indicated that both will not be on the road trip. Logan O’Connor also will remain in Denver, but Bednar indicated that he was much closer to returning to the lineup and will be working through on-ice drills while the team is on the road.
Minnesota’s victory over Columbus on Sunday has them occupying first place in the Central Division, but a win in Philadelphia coupled with a Pittsburgh victory over Utah tonight could put the Avs in front of Minnesota.
MacKinnon still leads all skaters in points (16) and assists (10), and is tied with Lehkonen for the team lead in goals (6). Defenseman Noah Juulsen spent the 2025-2026 season with Philadelphia prior to signing a two-year contract with the Avs this off-season.
The Avs split the season series against Philadelphia last season, with both teams winning as the road team.
Projected Lineup
Forwards: Artturi Lehkonen – Nathan MacKinnon – Martin Nečas Gabe Landeskog – Brock Nelson – Nazem Kadri Jaden Schwartz – Fedor Svechkov – T.J. Hughes Parker Kelly – Gavin Brindley
Defense: Devon Toews – Cale Makar Brett Kulak – Sam Malinski Josh Manson – Brent Burns Noah Juulsen
Between the Pipes: Mackenzie Blackwood Scott Wedgewood
Philadelphia Flyers
Coming into this season, the Flyers had every reason to feel optimistic. They returned to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in five years this past spring and eliminated their archrival Pittsburgh in the first round. They fell to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes in a four game sweep in the second round.
Flyers general manager Daniel Brière spent his off-season revamping his goaltending platoon in the hopes of building on that playoff appearance. On June 16, he acquired goaltender Joseph Woll and defenseman Simon Benoit from the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for goaltender Samuel Ersson, defenseman Emil Andrae (later traded to Columbus for Kirill Marchenko), and Philadelphia’s 2026 third round pick.
At the start of free agency, he also signed goaltender Dan Vladar to a five-year, $27.5 million dollar contract. Brière also signed right wing Noel Acciari to a two-year, $5.6 million dollar contract the same day. Garrett Wilson and Michael Bunting were late additions to Brière’s roster: Wilson signed a one-year, $850,000 contract, on September 27, while Bunting signed his one-year, $1.2 million dollar contract, on October 06.
Brière also triggered what became an unprecedented spike in player salaries when he tendered a five-year, $90 million dollar offer sheet to restricted free agent center Leo Carlsson of the Anaheim Ducks on July 03. Although Anaheim matched the offer sheet, this move was a clear statement to the rest of the League: the Flyers were on the way up, and Brière was willing pay a significant price to build on what he believed was a franchise on the rise.
The assumed ascent for the Flyers became a calamitous crash right from the opening puck drop. Philadelphia lost their home opener in a rematch with Pittsburgh by a humiliating 7-0 outcome on September 30. They followed this performance up with eight consecutive losses—a new franchise record—before finally recording their first win of the season, a 3-1 decision against the visiting Ottawa Senators this past Saturday.
To add insult to injury during the losing streak was actual injury: right winger Nikita Grebenkin underwent back surgery on October 10 following a 5-1 loss to the Boston Bruins, and is expected to miss four months of action. The following day, fellow right wing Travis Konecny was placed on injured reserve with a lower body injury. Defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen was also placed on injured reserve on October 14 following a 3-2 shootout loss to the Seattle Kraken the previous evening.
Even the win against Ottawa was costly: forwards Owen Tippett, Tyson Foerster, and Flyers captain Sean Couturier are now considered day-to-day.
Head coach Rick Tocchet said this after the win on Saturday. “It was a gutsy effort. We have a lot of guys hurt. Some guys stepped up. […] It was nice to see some resiliency, you know? It was good. We saw a lot of compete tonight. Better execution. There was some stuff we really liked tonight, and hopefully we can carry it on.”
When asked about the contributions from the lineup, Tocchet said, “I think, honestly, to a man, everyone contributed something. It wasn’t pockets of people. That’s the way we’re built. We need everybody. We just can’t have everybody on the sidelines.”
Matvei Michkov leads all Philadelphia skaters in points (5) and goals (4), while the injured Konecny and Couturier currently share the team lead in assists (3). Porter Martone leads all Philadelphia skaters in penalty minutes (14). Vladar and Woll have a combined nine (9) losses in goal, with Vladar holding the single win.
Although Philadelphia is last in the Metropolitan Division, they sit one point behind Columbus, who lost to Minnesota on Sunday night.
Philadelphia heads to Buffalo on Wednesday before beginning a two game home stand at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Saturday against Anaheim.
Projected Lineup
Forwards: Trevor Zegras – Christian Dvorak – Tyson Foerster Porter Martone – Noah Cates – Matvei Michkov Denver Barkey – Sean Couturier – Michael Bunting Garrett Wilson – Jack Studnicka – Noel Acciari
Defense: Travis Sanheim – Oliver Bonk Nick Seeler – Jamie Drysdale David Jiříček – Simon Benoit
PITTSBURGH, PA - OCTOBER 03: Sidney Crosby #87 of the Pittsburgh Penguins moves the puck against the Montréal Canadiens during the first period at PPG PAINTS Arena on October 3, 2026 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Joe Sargent/NHLI via Getty Images) | NHLI via Getty Images
The October schedule has turned out to be a brutal one for the Pittsburgh Penguins, full of some big tests against some of the NHL’s best teams.
So far, they are struggling with that test.
It is not going to get any easier at the start of this week.
The Penguins enter Monday’s game at the Utah Mammoth on a three-game losing skid, currently 0-for-3 on their four-game road trip, and have lost six of their past seven games since a 2-0 start.
Nothing is going well.
The power play? An absolute mess that is struggling to do anything right.
The penalty kill? Starting to become a little leaky.
The defense? Struggling to cleanly exit their own zone, handling the puck like it’s a tennis ball and leaving people all alone for scoring chances.
The goaltending? Not up to the early challenge.
Combine all of that with games against teams like the Colorado Avalanche and Vegas Golden Knights, and you have some ugly results and losses starting to pile up.
Unfortunately for the Penguins, it is not going to get much easier this week. That includes Monday’s game against a Utah team that is starting to emerge as an early season contender in the Western Conference.
The Mammoth enter Monday’s game with a 6-3-0 record, and boast one of the league’s best offenses early in the season. They are sixth in the NHL in goals per game (3.67), already have four players averaging at least a point per game (Clayton Keller, Mikhail Sergachev, Nick Schmaltz and Dylan Guenther) and have a power play unit that is clicking at a whopping 35.3 percent, the highest mark in the NHL through the first three weeks.
Not exactly a great opponent for a team that is struggling to defend right now.
If there is a silver lining in that matchup, it’s that Utah’s goaltending has been sub-par through the first nine games, while their penalty kill is working at only a 73.9 percent success rate.
Maybe this is a chance for the Penguins power play to break out of its slump, or for the offense to score more than two goals, which has kind of become their number over most of the past seven games. The Penguins also just need to salvage something from this road trip.
Whether they do or not, their return home is going to put them up against yet another contender when the Florida Panthers make their way into Pittsburgh on Thursday night.
Even though they missed the playoffs a year ago, the Panthers still entered the 2026-27 season as one of the top betting favorites to win the Stanley Cup, and that was largely due to the return of top center Aleksander Barkov and the addition of winger Brady Tkachuk.
Well, Barkov is sidelined again (but not for the entire season this time) and will not be available on Thursday. Or for several more weeks.
But that has not really slowed down the Panthers offense.
They enter the week on a three-game winning streak and have scored at least seven goals in two of those games. Even more eye-opening: They have four hat tricks over that stretch, including a natural hat trick in three consecutive games (two from Brady Tkachuk, one from Carter Verhaeghe; Sam Benntt had the fourth hat trick in that stretch, though it was not a natural hat trick).
Not only do the Panthers have plenty of depth, they are also one of the most physical teams in the league with a lineup that thrives on creating chaos.
The Penguins do get a little bit of a scheduling break here as they will be home, and rested for a couple of days, while Florida plays the night before in Ottawa.
This week’s schedule concludes on Saturday with a home game against the Nashville Predators. Nashville is a team in a similar boat as the Penguins, trying to orchestrate a version of a rebuild with a roster that still has a lot of veteran pieces on it. On paper, this is the most winnable game of three on this week’s schedule.
Even more than getting wins (which they need), I really just want to see the Penguins start to figure some things out this week.
The top line is starting to show some signs of life. That’s … something.
But they need Rickard Rakell to find the net. They need the power play to look like a functioning unit. They need the defense to stop stepping on a collection of rakes in their own zone. I basically just want to see a better, more consistent process, especially against good teams. Show you can at least hang with them, or at least avoid the five-to-ten minute meltdowns that seem to happen every game that put them out of reach. There have been some stretches of good hockey this season. They have carried games for significant stretches, and outplayed teams for significant stretches, only to have everything get completely undone by a handful of mistakes that unravel everything and always seem to end up in the back of their net.
It is game 10 of the season. There are 74 games remaining after Monday. There is still time to fix things. But you have to start making some progress on that. Start showing a better, more consistent process and let the results take care of themselves after that. That’s the thing I want to see this week. Just play better. Play more consistently. Even if it doesn’t translate into immediate wins yet, just show you are capable of it for more than short stretches.
"Win Scrappy" Todd McLellan Points To Red Wings Identity Detroit Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan made it clear on how his team needs to win games moving forward. 
