Apr 4, 2026; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Washington Capitals left wing Connor McMichael (24) celebrates after scoring a goal against the Buffalo Sabres during the first period at Capital One Arena. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images
Geoff Burke-Imagn Images
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Connor McMichael has signed a six-year, $40.5 million contract with the St. Louis Blues.
General manager Alex Steen, who took over the job from Doug Armstrong on July 1, announced the deal Thursday. McMichael will count $6.75 million against the salary cap through the 2031-32 NHL season.
McMichael joined the team as part of the return from the Washington Capitals in the Jordan Kyrou trade last month. St. Louis also got a first-round pick and prospect Milton Gastrin.
This long-term contract more than triples McMichael’s salary after he made $2.1 million each of the past two seasons.
The 25-year-old forward is coming off setting a career high with 32 assists and also scoring 14 goals in 78 games with the Capitals. He has 162 points in 333 regular season and playoff games since making his debut in the league in 2021 after getting taken with the 25th pick in the 2019 draft.
Even if the news doesn't come as a surprise, the Pittsburgh Penguins officially terminated the longest-standing ECHL affiliation in the NHL.
On Thursday, the Penguins announced that they ended their 29-year affiliation with the Wheeling Nailers and subsequently named the Florida Everblades as their new ECHL squad. The news comes a few weeks after the Penguins sale to the Hoffmann Family of Companies became official, when they publicly shared their intention to switch the affiliation to their already-owned franchise in the Everblades.
The Nailers are now without an NHL parent club, while the Everblades were not affiliated with an NHL team at the time of the switch.
The Pittsburgh Penguins announce end to long and successful ECHL affiliation agreement with the Wheeling Nailers. pic.twitter.com/i4QigXbJWO
Wheeling first became the affiliate of the Penguins in 1996, and since then, it helped develop multiple NHL players as well as several top prospects, including goaltender Sergei Murashov, defenseman Finn Harding, and forwards Avery Hayes and Atley Calvert currently. Pittsburgh has long-considered its ECHL affiliate to be a developmental league, and that has only become more true under the current front office regime under president of hockey operations and general manager Kyle Dubas.
But, despite the developmental angle, Wheeling's proximity to Pittsburgh and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (the organization's AHL affiliate), and the relatively small but cult following Wheeling has, the Hoffmann family made it clear from the jump that Florida was always the endgame.
The Everblades have been a highly successful ECHL franchise in recent years, as they have won four of the past five Kelly Cup championships, including the 2026 title over the Kansas City Mavericks. They have won more Kelly Cup Championships than any team in ECHL history with five.
Any player in the Penguins' organization signed to an NHL or an AHL contract can now be assigned to the ECHL affiliate in Florida, if eligible as far as contract terms. Any player signed to ECHL agreements will remain with their current club, meaning any ECHL-signed Penguins' prospect will remain in Wheeling.
Philadelphia Flyers center Trevor Zegras (46) and New York Islanders defenseman Matthew Schaefer (48) battle for the puck.
Trevor Zegras is getting rewarded for a career season.
Zegras inked a four-year deal to stay in Philadelphia, the team announced Wednesday.
The 25-year-old center, who spent the first five years of his career with the Ducks before getting traded to the Philadelphia last offseason, will earn $36.5 million ($9.125 million average annual value) to become the Flyers’ highest-paid player.
The center was a restricted free agent who had filed for arbitration, which can now be avoided.
Philadelphia Flyers center Trevor Zegras looks on. AP Photo/Chris Szagola
“We’re thrilled to have Trevor committed to our organization for the next four years,” Flyers general manager Danny Briere said in a statement. “The growth he showed this past season, proving that he is the skilled player he entered the league as, reinforced our belief that he will be an impact player for the Flyers for the years to come. He’s the type of player who can help take our team to the next level, and we’re excited to continue building alongside him.”
Zegras, the ninth pick in the 2019 draft, scored 67 goals and tallied 119 assists in five years with the Ducks before joining the Flyers.
In his first season with Philly, he scored a career-high 26 goals while adding 41 assists, which was one shy of his career best set in 2022-23.
In eight playoff games, Zegras notched two goals with four assists.
In addition to locking up their core after an overachieving season, Briere has focused on retaining veterans, as he’s signed goalie Dan Vladar and right wing Tyson Foerster to extensions this offseason.
Philadelphia Flyers center Trevor Zegras (46) and New York Islanders defenseman Matthew Schaefer (48) battle for the puck. Noah K. Murray for NY Post
But Anaheim matched it and made him the league’s highest-paid center at $18 million AAV.
The Flyers are coming off a resurgent 2025-26 season in which they made the playoffs for the first time since 2020 and won a first-round series against the rival Penguins.
On Thursday, the Vegas Golden Knights released the schedule for the 2026-27 regular season, which will have 84 games after a shortened preseason. The regular season begins on September 29th at home against the Chicago Blackhawks and ends on April 10th at home against the Los Angeles Kings.
Every game is important in its own right, but certain ones certainly stand out for their narratives and entertainment value. So, without further ado, here are the five biggest matchups for the Golden Knights during the 2026-27 regular season.
December 21st @ Carolina Hurricanes
Every year, as soon as the NHL releases the regular season schedule, neutral fans scramble to circle the rematch of the most recent Stanley Cup Final. After a truly dominant run to the Stanley Cup Final, the Golden Knights exited the postseason with a whimper on the back of a 22-save shutout from Hurricanes goaltender Brandon Bussi. They’re desperate to get the taste of defeat out of their mouths, and this is the first chance to do so.
While winning the rematch won’t fully erase the sting of defeat, it might be critical to do so to set the tone for the new season. There’s no question that the Golden Knights will give this game everything they’ve got, and the Hurricanes will as well.
January 2nd vs Colorado Avalanche
While the Stanley Cup Final rematch promises emotional fireworks, it’s possible that the Western Conference Final rematch could threaten to steal the spotlight in terms of entertainment. And how could it not, after what the Golden Knights did to the Avalanche during those six days in late May? Make no mistake, the Golden Knights thoroughly embarrassed the Avalanche, and their opponent will likely be out for blood.
The Avalanche are a high-flying offensive team, and after getting shut down for four straight games, they’ll be chomping at the bit to prove it. And, hey, Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar are always worth the price of admission. This has the potential to be one of the best matchups of the season.
February 15th vs Detroit Red Wings
The Golden Knights will host several return games during the 2026-27 regular season, but two will stand out from the rest in terms of emotional impact. The first return game will be for Keegan Kolesar, a fan favorite known for his physicality, who was traded to the Red Wings at the start of the offseason.
Kolesar embraced the Las Vegas community, and they embraced him right back. He’s sure to get a warm welcome from the fans in T-Mobile Arena ahead of what will be an emotional game.
February 19th @ Dallas Stars
Few things are more compelling than an outdoor hockey game. The actual hockey itself is often quite sloppy because of the weather conditions, but we love these outdoor games anyway because of the spectacle they offer. The two teams walk out in themed outfits, there’s usually a musical entertainer, and nothing makes athletes happier than an opportunity to take the game back to the way they played it as kids.
On February 19th, the Golden Knights will play their second outdoor game— and first Stadium Series game— in franchise history against the Dallas Stars at AT&T Stadium. They already used the Elvis outfit back at the 2024 Winter Classic against the Seattle Kraken, so it’s anybody’s guess what they’ll walk out in this year.
March 13th vs New York Rangers
The second and final return game of the season features a rare home-grown talent: Pavel Dorofeyev. Vegas selected Dorofeyev in the third round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft, and he developed into a dangerous scoring winger. But all good things come to an end– because they couldn’t afford his looming payday, the Golden Knights traded the pending Restricted Free Agent to the New York Rangers during the 2026 NHL Entry Draft.
Because they prioritize staying in win-now mode, the Golden Knights haven’t made many draft picks and have hit on very few of them. Dorofeyev was perhaps their greatest success story, as he led the team in goals for the past two seasons. Hockey is a business, and there are no hard feelings between the two parties, but the two-time 35-goal scorer’s return game is sure to include some fireworks.
There's no midseason international tournament, but the All-Star Game will return and have an international theme.
There will be 84 games, not 82, to create a balanced division schedule, and the season will start on Sept. 29 instead of early October. There will be fewer preseason games, always a plus.
The opening game will be a good one with the defending Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes raising the banner before playing the 2024 and 2025 champion Florida Panthers.
Here are some of the winners and losers of the NHL's 2026-27 schedule release:
WINNERS
Washington Capitals fans
The NHL has a nice sense of symmetry this year. The Capitals play their home opener against the rival Pittsburgh Penguins and their home finale against the same team. That's two more times to watch the Alex Ovechkin-Sidney Crosby matchup if Ovechkin doesn't play beyond this season. This is also the final year of Crosby's contract.
The season finale
All 32 teams will play on the season finale on April 10 − the second 16-game day in 2026-27. It's heavily division-oriented, so final playoff spots could be determined during the busy schedule.
European NHL fans
The NHL is increasing the number of Monday afternoon games so they can be watched in prime time in Europe and build the audience there. There will be two games in Finland (Hurricanes vs. Kraken) and Germany (Senators vs. Blackhawks). Finnish fans get to see countrymen Sebastian Aho and Kaapo Kakko, and German fans get to see Tim Stutzle.
Brady Tkachuk
The Florida Panthers offseason acquisition gets a great first test against the Hurricanes on opening night. Does he fight playoff MVP Jordan Staal as he did with the Ottawa Senators at the start of the playoffs? Plus, Tkachuk gets his return to Ottawa out of the way early with an Oct. 21 game.
LOSERS
Chicago Blackhawks
The Blackhawks weren't going to be a playoff team and even less so with Connor Bedard out for all of October and into November after shoulder surgery. But the schedule makers did them no favors. They face 12 playoff teams through the first week of November, including two meetings with the Hurricanes. Among the non-playoffs teams are two meetings with the recent champion Panthers.
Winter Classic timing
The Colorado Avalanche visiting the Utah Mammoth, good. Beautiful setting, good. New Year's Eve, meh. At least the game starts at 4 p.m. local time, so the Wasatch mountains will be visible before the 5:09 p.m. sunset.
Calgary Flames fans
Remember the symmetry for Capitals fans? NHL schedule makers didn't do that in Calgary. This is the final season for the Saddledome. The final regular season opponent is the Vancouver Canucks, not the archrival Edmonton Oilers.
NHL shares the spotlight
There wasn't much time to digest the NHL schedule before Major League Baseball said its 2027 season would start on March 24. That assuming, of course, that they get a collective bargaining agreement done in time.
When he coached the Pittsburgh Penguins, Dan Bylsma regularly referred to Evgeni Malkin as the smartest guy in the room. On this night, he was probably also the happiest. And that’s saying something because it was a very big room. There was Yevgeni Vladimirovich Malkin, son of a steelworker from working-class Magnitogorsk, standing at center ice of Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, basking in the glow of winning his third career Stanley Cup and the Penguins’ second straight, cementing the team’s and the player’s places in the annals of the game.
He had a cut across the bridge of his nose that was leaking slowly, not a battle scar but an accidental nick from a teammate’s visor that hit him during the celebration, a touch ironic considering Malkin was the postseason leader in penalty minutes. He didn’t have it moments before when he was jumping around like a little kid on the bench with Phil Kessel to celebrate Carl Hagelin’s empty-net goal. “It’s like, it’s crazy, you know,” Malkin said. “It’s not a penalty for sure.”
Then, like Adrian did in the first Rocky movie, Anna Kasterova made her way through the mass of humanity and jumped into her husband’s arms. He twirled her around on his skates and they kissed. But this wasn’t one of those ‘we-did-itand- look-how-happy-we-are’ pecks for public consumption. No, Kasterova took her husband’s sweaty, bearded face in her hands and the two of them went all Bogie and Bacall. It was the kind of kiss that makes people start looking down at their shoes after a while, the type of PDA (Public Display of Affection) that makes someone want to wisecrack, “Hey, get a room!”
The record shows Malkin received only three first-place votes for the 2017 Conn Smythe Trophy, despite being the playoff scoring leader, once again usurped by the omnipresent Sidney Crosby, who unseated Malkin by putting the Penguins on his back in the last two games of the Stanley Cup final. Until then, it looked as though Malkin was going to win his second Conn Smythe and become only the second player in history to go at least seven years between being named playoff MVP, joining Patrick Roy. After the game, the Penguins were talking about Crosby earning his place as one of the greatest NHL players of all-time (more on that on page 66). Malkin, meanwhile, couldn’t even get his name on the league’s list of the top 100 players of all-time earlier this season.
We’re going to assume he was No. 101. We’re also going to assume it doesn’t bother him in the least. As teammate Ian Cole said, “Do I think he’s broken up over it? No. I don’t think he’s constantly going home and crying himself to sleep that he wasn’t part of the top 100.”
Looking at Malkin that night in Nashville, beaming with his beautiful wife, you’d have to think the lack of recognition was the furthest thing from his mind. Nobody looked happier than he did. A lot of people in Pittsburgh were upset he wasn’t on the NHL’s top 100 list, but he wasn’t one of them. As he said on Media Day before the Stanley Cup final, in what was probably the longest interview of his career, “No, I don’t care. My record is Cups.”
And now he has three of ’em, the third as part of the first team to win two in a row in the salary cap era. Add that to his Calder Trophy – something Crosby never won – a Hart Trophy, two Art Ross Trophies and a Conn Smythe Trophy, and you have a player who has managed to carve out his legacy while skating in the shadow of one of the greatest players ever. Perhaps that’s why Malkin was so happy standing there at center ice in Nashville. But maybe it was because the 30-year-old was looking at his life and realizing things may never be better than they were at that precise moment. Since May of last year, he has won two Stanley Cups, become a father for the first time and married the woman he fell in love with after seeing her on TV. “He’s a very romantic man,” said Kasterova with the help of an interpreter, “and he loves me very much.”
It was five years ago that Malkin was watching television in Moscow during the off-season and was instantly smitten by the woman doing sports. He frantically began his quest to find her, including getting in touch with every Russian journalist he knew in an effort to get her phone number. “He see me on television and, ‘Wow!’ ” Kasterova said. “He text me and say, ‘I’m Malkin, can I text you maybe sometimes because you’re very nice.’ For two years we text as friends, and after two years we are together.”
They went on their first date to a sushi restaurant in Moscow and fell in love almost instantly. And now with Nikita, they are three. When he talks about his son, you can see the pride on Malkin’s face, and Kasterova lauds him for being a loving and caring father. For all he’s done in the game, Malkin wants to make sure he does right by his children. Fatherhood has been a life-changing experience for him. He kisses his boy every day before he goes to the rink and takes an immense amount of joy in his son’s milestones, proudly declaring Nikita recently learned to walk.
“This year I go out zero times,” Malkin said. “I stay home and when we have an extra day in New York, I tell coach, ‘Let’s go home.’ I was so excited when my wife was pregnant. I can’t wait to see my son and now I want more. He’s not my last for sure. I try to be good dad, not just good hockey dad. Hockey life is short, like 20 years, but after it’s, like, be a good dad.”
Until then, though, Malkin will try to be a good NHL player, too. He has at least five more years to do so before his current contract expires. By that time he’ll be 35, and he’ll have made slightly more than $131 million. The Hall of Fame will wait three more years for him if that’s when he decides to retire. He’ll have more babies by then, and maybe one or two more Cups, as well as a few more individual honors. Who knows? He may even have made his way into the top 100 players of alltime by then. But even if none of that happens, Malkin has built a legacy in Pittsburgh behind Crosby, forming a 1-2 punch at center that rivals Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier, Steve Yzerman and Sergei Fedorov, Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg.
“I really believe in just my time here with both guys, they’ve grown to be appreciative for one another and how they help each other have success and this team,” said Penguins coach Mike Sullivan. “And so when there are nights when maybe Sid might not have his ‘A’ game, that Geno steps up and helps this team win, and vice versa. There are other nights where Geno might not have his ‘A’ game and Sid steps up and makes a big play to help this team win. They’re two players of a very select few in the league that singlehandedly have an ability to change the outcomes of games. That’s how good they are. I think I termed it a 1-2 punch maybe, but it’s really a 1 and 1A. These guys, they’re elite players. They’re great people, and I don’t know that you could find two better people to build a team around than these two guys.”
Like those other great tandems, Malkin and Crosby are two entirely different players, but they complement each other perfectly. If Malkin harbors any resentment from the lack of recognition he gets because of Crosby, there’s no indication of it. In fact, you could argue that as Crosby sits at his stall after every practice and game and handles the crush of questions with aplomb and patience, he’s actually helping Malkin, who gets to go about his business quietly and without distraction. He can go out to the back and work on his sticks with a smile on his face and not a care in the world. If Malkin were the alpha dog somewhere else, that wouldn’t be the case.
“I don’t want to be like No. 1 in Carolina or something,” Malkin said. “I feel like the guy here, too. I come to a restaurant and people want to shake hands and it’s fun for me. I sign a big deal here because I feel we can win every year here. I want to play with Sid a long time. It’s good competition between me and Sid. Sid score, I want to score, too. Sid score one more, I want to score one more, too. Sid score a hat trick, I stop.”
Everyone got a good laugh out of that one. Malkin is a funny, engaging guy, as he proved on Media Day, taking questions for nearly half an hour and discussing everything from hockey to fatherhood to dealing with people throwing octopi and catfish on the ice. Sitting over at the next pod, Crosby took notice, saying it was nice to see Malkin under the spotlight for a change.
“He does a pretty good job of staying away,” Crosby said. “He and Phil (Kessel) usually throw it on me and on my stall and head out of there. You guys probably fired him up with some good questions, and I’m sure he loved it.”
When Bylsma was coaching in Pittsburgh, he got to see that dynamic closer than anyone. He’d watch as he gave instructions, and it’d look as though Malkin wasn’t paying attention. Bylsma would then test him, asking what should be done in a specific situation, and Malkin would answer perfectly every time. He’d watch Malkin play cards with Sergei Gonchar on the plane and beat him nine out of 10 times. He saw him read complex books that were written in both Russian and English and saw a player who was reclusive for public consumption but one who spoke freely and wisely among his teammates.
“I almost felt like he was ahead of everyone else in the room,” Bylsma said.
Jim Rutherford scanned up and down the list the first time and frowned. Picture him with an index finger on his chin, the other hand lifting his glasses to his forehead and back down to his eyes a couple times, lurching ahead to get a closer look at the screen. He looked again, this time a little more closely, and couldn’t believe what he wasn’t seeing. He realized the players were listed in alphabetical order and zoned in on the M’s. Now imagine Rutherford taking off his glasses and breathing on both lenses before wiping them clean with the cuff of his shirt. As the reality dawned on him that Malkin wasn’t on the NHL’s list of the top 100 players of all-time, Rutherford tried to put aside his biases as Penguins GM. He considered the body of work and came to the only logical conclusion he could.
“I looked at the list,” Rutherford recalled, “and I’m thinking to myself, ‘This can’t be right.’ ”
Rutherford did come to accept the reality, but it stung. And it was made all the more awkward by the fact Rutherford was part of the “blue-ribbon” panel that had input into the final list. Hall of Fame defenseman Pierre Pilote would also have been on his list, but it was Malkin’s omission that had him feeling so conflicted. As his GM, Rutherford would have loved to come out swinging and defend his player. Yet as a part of the group that chose the players, he had to tread softly.
“Yeah, I had to be careful because I was part of the panel, and I didn’t want to say a whole lot at the time because I was upset for Geno and I didn’t want to go against the panel,” he said. “But yeah, I was upset.”
For Rutherford, it’s not about the here and now. It’s about 50 or 100 years down the road when someone who never saw Malkin play looks at that list and doesn’t see his name on it. “People will look back on history and they’ll look at the top 100 and they won’t find a player who, in my opinion, you could make an argument should be in the top 50, let alone the top 100. And that’s where you get disappointed about it.”
Bylsma watched Malkin play for five years, which were the most productive of his career. Bylsma witnessed greatness. He saw a player who elevated his game when Crosby was out of the lineup. He saw a player who rehabbed three times a day from knee surgery during the first round of the playoffs in 2011, watching while his team lost in seven games to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Malkin had been told his season was over, and there was no way he was going to play regardless of how far the Penguins advanced, but he kept working out in the hopes of coming back early. He apologized to then-GM Ray Shero for getting injured at such a crucial time of the year.
“It’s certainly hard to pick the best 100 in the game, and there are people who, without question, should be in the top 100,” Bylsma said. “But Evgeni should be in the top 100.”
Almost everyone who knows Malkin claims that being left off the list doesn’t matter to him. Bylsma often heard Malkin say that he honestly cares about nothing more than winning the Stanley Cup, so we’re going to take them at their word and Malkin at his. But everyone has at least a bit of an ego, no? We all want to be recognized for what we have accomplished. Gonchar, who is now the Penguins’ defensemen development coach, might know Malkin better than anyone else, and he’s not so sure Malkin didn’t care about the snub.
“I think pissed off probably wouldn’t be the right word,” Gonchar said. “He was probably more motivated and that gave him an extra push. He’s a very competitive guy, and people might not notice that about him.”
When the Penguins won their second of two straight Stanley Cups in 1992, they had seven future Hall of Fame players (that includes Jaromir Jagr) and a blueline that featured Paul Coffey, Larry Murphy and Ulf Samuelsson. This year, Crosby and Malkin were the only surefire Hall of Famers, and the back end looked nothing like it did 25 years ago. With Kris Letang out with an injury, Pittsburgh won with six nondescript defensemen, led by Brian Dumoulin, who seemed to be held together with balls of string, wire and duct tape while averaging almost 22 minutes a game. Ron Hainsey, who turned 36 just before the end of the regular season and went into the playoffs with 907 games of NHL experience without a single post-season appearance, combined with Dumoulin to be the team’s shutdown tandem.
The Penguins’ back-to-back Stanley Cups couldn’t have been more impressive given the adversity and injuries they faced this season. They won games they shouldn’t have – some on sheer talent, others on the strength of their goaltending, guile and grit. They were outshot regularly and confounded the analytics community. They were hardly the perfect champions, but in the end they had a parade in Pittsburgh that, like back in the day in Montreal, followed the usual route.
This was indeed a special group. It was led through the first two rounds by a veteran goalie with a checkered playoff history, a guy who already knew he wouldn’t even be in Pittsburgh next season. In the hours after the Penguins’ victory, it was reported Marc-Andre Fleury had waived his no-trade clause and would be available to the Vegas Golden Knights in the expansion draft, giving Pittsburgh the luxury of protecting its goalie of the present and the future, 23-yearold Matt Murray.
The Penguins faced a Columbus Blue Jackets team in the first round that tried to run them out of the rink. They failed. Then came the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Washington Capitals, who executed their annual second-round choke job but not before wearing Pittsburgh down over seven games and dealing a blow to Crosby, a “hockey play” in which he was double-slashed by Alex Ovechkin before being cross-checked in the face and drilled in the knee by Matt Niskanen.
Then came another seven-game series, this time against the Ottawa Senators, who ground their way to double overtime in the deciding game. Before the final, Malkin acknowledged that penetrating the Predators’ vaunted defense corps “is going to be the hardest challenge of my life,” and after it was over, it looked every bit that difficult. By the time the Penguins faced the Predators, many thought they were running on fumes, and in the first four games, it looked as though they were doing just that. But those were powerful fumes, and the extra day off between games energized them.
When Nick Bonino went down in Game 2 with what was later disclosed as a broken leg – though not before returning to finish the game a la Bobby Baun – Pittsburgh was limping its way to the finish line. When the Penguins won their first Cup in 1991, Mario Lemieux had to have the trainers tie his skates for him because his back was in such bad shape that he couldn’t do it himself. The team had to build him a special bed in his hotel room on the road just so he could get some sleep. So, this Penguins group didn’t have the market cornered on overcoming adversity.
Any team that plays 82 games in a season and 25 more in the spring has to navigate any number of obstacles. But what this team did and how it managed to win the war of attrition was something to behold.
“I always use the phrase that I think we’re a scrappy group,” Sullivan said. “It’s not always pretty, but this group is resilient. We’re scrappy, we’re competitive. We just stay with it. There’s a stick-to-it-iveness that this group has, and they believe in one another. This team, I think, has a unique chemistry. They’re a great group of people, and they enjoy playing for one another. These guys are a privilege to coach. We push them so hard because we think so highly of them.”
There were many times the Penguins could have withered. They looked dead in the water after blowing a 3-1 series lead to the Capitals and appeared almost on life support after being blown out in Games 3 and 4 against Nashville. In Game 2 against the Senators, Malkin and Kessel grew frustrated with each other and it boiled over on the bench, forcing Sullivan to come over to Malkin and calm him down.
Kessel later scored the pivotal goal to deliver a victory, and everyone brushed it off afterward. But it also went a long way to proving that Crosby isn’t the only player on the team whose competitive fires burn white hot. It turns out Kessel gets amped up on occasion, and Malkin’s emotional well runs deeply, too. Consider that Malkin has been in a total of seven fights in his career, with more of them coming in the playoffs (four) than the regular season (three).
In 2016-17, Malkin reached another milestone. By winning his third Stanley Cup, he tied Sergei Fedorov and Igor Larionov for the highest total by a Russian player. He sits seventh among Russian players on the NHL’s all-time scoring list, but there’s no reason why he can’t climb to third, perhaps even second, though that will take some doing since he’s more than 300 points behind Fedorov. It depends on how long Malkin plays or if he continues beyond his current contract.
Being No. 1 will be virtually impossible, since he’s 203 points behind Ovechkin as it stands now. In points and recognition, Malkin will always remain second to Ovechkin among Russian players, even though Malkin’s name is on the Stanley Cup three times while Ovechkin may never get his on the bowl. Of all the Russians who have ever played in the NHL, Malkin leads the pack in points per game at 1.18, ahead of Ovechkin, who sits second at 1.12. Malkin needs 193 assists to become the all-time assists leader among Russian players.
It’s hard to carve out a legacy when a personality as large and dominating as Ovechkin takes up most of the space. Unlike Ovechkin, who grew up in cosmopolitan Moscow, a privileged son of a former Olympic athlete, Malkin grew up in a two-bedroom apartment in a working class city, the son of a laborer. Perhaps that’s why he’s so comfortable in Pittsburgh. Both Magnitogorsk and Pittsburgh forged their identities with steel mills and sweat, even though the booming steel days in Pittsburgh are long gone and it has become one of the Rust Belt cities that has figured out how to survive. It’s an almost perfect spot for Malkin, who gets the benefits of winning championships and being a star player without the responsibilities that come with being the face of a franchise.
So, now Malkin has his Cups. He has his wife, his family and all the money he could ever want. After the Penguins won the Cup, Sullivan said the players didn’t want anyone else writing their story for them because they aren’t finished. Murray has two Stanley Cups, and he’s only 23. Rutherford has rediscovered his mojo in Pittsburgh and, though he faces significant challenges, he has two of the most successful, clutch and decorated players in the game. And for Malkin, the people who matter most to him, his family and teammates, they know what he’s all about. Or they will.
“He has no idea I play hockey,” said Malkin of his one-year-old son. “When he grows up, like two or three years old, I hope he will be proud of me.”
The Kings are coming off an up-and-down 2025-26 season in which they fired head coach Jim Hiller on March 1 after a prolonged slump left them out of the playoff picture. They rebounded under interim head coach DJ Smith with an 11-6-6 record to close out the season and qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs in Anze Kopitar's last ride. They were swept in the first round by the Colorado Avalanche.
This year, the Kings and new head coach Peter Laviolette will open the season how the last one ended -- against the Avalanche. They follow that Sept. 30 game in Denver with a trip to Northern California to face the San Jose Sharks on Oct. 3 before returning to LA to host the Florida Panthers on Oct. 6.
With the full slate of Kings games officially set, here's a look at the top five best matchups on their 2026-27 schedule.
84 games, a green screen, and a dream. @JoshSchaeferPxP breaks down our 2026-27 schedule! 📊
What better way to start off this list than with the season opener. The Avs won the Stanley Cup in 2022 and looked to be well on their way to another championship last season as winners of the Presidents' Trophy (best record in the regular season). They made quick work of the Kings in the first round but ultimately suffered the same fate themselves, being swept by the Vegas Golden Knights in the Western Conference finals.
Laviolette will get a chance to start his reign on a strong note if he can lead the Kings to a win in Denver.
Oct. 3 vs. Florida Panthers
The Panthers have been the perennial power in the NHL, winners of back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2024 and '25 though injuries and inconsistent play last season led them to miss the postseason for the first time since 2019. In fact, Florida became the first defending champion to miss the playoffs since ... the 2015 Kings.
Nov. 27-28 vs. Anaheim Ducks
LA has 10 back-to-backs this season in total, though none (at this point in time) carry more weight than their rivalry series against the Ducks in late November. The Kings have had success in the Freeway Face-Off, but that fortune flipped in 2025-26 when the Ducks won three of the four meetings. LA's lone victory was a decisive one -- a 6-1 thrashing on Dec. 27, 2025, in which Alex Laferriere scored his first NHL hat trick.
Kings fans should circle this matchup on their calendars for two reasons: It'll mark fired coach Hiller's return to Los Angeles with the Maple Leafs after he was hired on June 17, and it will be their first chance to get a look at 2026 No. 1 overall draft pick Gavin McKenna.
Jan. 6: vs. Washington Capitals
From first glances at a top prospect to a potential last glance at a legend. Alex Ovechkin signed a one-year contract extension to stay with the Caps for his 22nd season, but his future after that remains up in the air. This could be the last time fans at Crypto.com Arena get to see the NHL's all-time leading goal scorer, who enters the season needing 11 goals to break Wayne Gretzky's record for combined regular season and playoff goals.
Now that the Philadelphia Flyers have finally completed their most important piece of offseason business, they have the clearest picture yet of what they can and cannot do going forward in terms of improving the roster.
On Wednesday night, forward Trevor Zegras finally signed his highly anticipated contract extension with the Flyers, agreeing to a four-year, $36.5 million deal worth $9.125 million annually.
The Flyers give Zegras a pretty good chunk of change for a more modest term than many had expected and/or hoped for, but the 25-year-old top-six forward will remain in Philadelphia until 2030 nonetheless.
At the time of this writing, the Flyers still need to re-sign defenseman Jamie Drysdale, forward Nikita Grebenkin, and prospect Hunter McDonald--all of whom are restricted free agents.
Drysdale, who, like Zegras, filed for arbitration, is set to have his case go before an arbitrator on Monday, though the expectation is that a deal with the Flyers will be struck before then.
Accounting for Zegras, now the Flyers' highest-paid player on a per-season basis, the Flyers have $20.44 million in cap space to fit in Drysdale, Grebenkin, and McDonald, according to PuckPedia.
PuckPedia also has top center prospect Jett Luchanko on the Flyers' NHL roster, so, provided he starts the season in the AHL as general manager Danny Briere expects, that will add another $941k to the table.
With Drysdale, reports have indicated that the former Anaheim Ducks rearguard will sign a shorter-term deal, similar to Zegras, with a cap hit expected to be in the range of Travis Sanheim's $6.25 million, which would either tie him with Sanheim, or make him the highest-paid defenseman on the roster outright.
McDonald, 24, figures to sign a one- or two-year deal cheap enough that, when assigned to the AHL, won't count against the NHL salary cap at all.
Grebenkin's situation is a bit trickier to figure out, knowing that he is coming off a season-ending injury and still rehabbing with the Flyers while he awaits a new contract.
The 23-year-old Russian was arguably the team's best fourth-liner last season before the injury and a slew of lineup changes.
Injury or not, once Sean Couturier, Luke Glendening, and Garnet Hathaway found their mojo together, Grebenkin wasn't getting back into the lineup, for better or for worse.
Hathaway is gone now, though, and Glendening's place has been presumably taken by free agent addition Noel Acciari.
An uneven but promising first full season in the NHL should see Grebenkin get another crack at sticking in the big leagues on a one- or two-year deal worth between $1 million and $2 million annually.
Assuming that Grebenkin gets $1.25 million and Drysdale gets $6.25 million, the Flyers will be allocating $7.5 million to those two players, leaving them with $12.94 million in cap space to operate with after the big Zegras deal.
That, of course, would not have been enough to fit the $18 million cap hit they gave to Leo Carlsson, but it's water under the bridge now.
What this does tell us, though, is that the Flyers are not considering another blockbuster offer sheet of the like at this time, if for no reason other than they cannot reasonably afford it.
To create the requisite cap space, they could always trade Rasmus Ristolainen and his $5.1 million cap hit to one of several interested teams, but those teams would also be aware that the Flyers need to shed his cap hit, destroying all leverage from Philadelphia's side.
The 2026 NHL free agency market remains very thin at all three positions, though the Flyers may want to insure themselves going forward with a power play quarterback, such as San Jose's John Klingberg.
In any case, regardless of what they want to do to add to the team, the Flyers still have a large chunk of cap space to work with.
The Vancouver Canucks are adding another former player to the organization. On Thursday, the Canucks announced that Alex Edler will be joining the player development department. As per the team press release, Edler will be "working closely with prospects throughout the organization."
Also included in the press release was a statement from GM Ryan Johnson, who wrote, "Alex knows first-hand what it means to be a Vancouver Canuck. His past experience in the NHL will really help in our players development, he understands the demands of what it takes to be a good pro both on and off the ice, while his skill set and communication will be a big plus when it comes to coaching and mentoring our prospects. Earlier this month we saw Alex’s hands-on approach at our Development Camp in Abbotsford, and the feedback we received about the job he did was excellent."
Edler played 1030 games in the NHL, which included 925 with Vancouver. He was part of the team's run to the 2011 Stanley Cup Final and ranks second all-time in franchise history for points by a defenceman with 409. In addition to his NHL career, Edler represented Sweden multiple times, including winning a Silver Medal at the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Jan 16, 2015; Raleigh, NC, USA; Vancouver Canucks defensemen Alex Edler (23) during the game against the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena. The Vancouver Canucks defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 3-0. Mandatory Credit: James Guillory-USA TODAY Sports
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RALEIGH, NC - JUNE 11: Fans cheer for the goal during game five of the NHL Stanley Cup Final between the Vegas Golden Knights and the Carolina Hurricanes on June 11, 2026 at Lenovo Center in Raleigh, NC. (Photo by Nicholas Faulkner/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
The National Hockey League released the schedules for their teams on Thursday. The World Champion, Carolina Hurricanes, will start things off with a match against the Florida Panthers on September 29, at 5 PM.
The Canes, who year after year need to have several away games during the annual October State Fair, will have four home games before they travel out west this season.
After Tuesday’s home opener, the Canes will face the Capitals at home on Friday night. Then they go on the road to face the Flyers and Habs. Check out the full schedule here:
It has been a quiet time the past week or so with even rumors drying up. In the meantime, Alexander Nikishin still needs a contract or will he be traded?
The team did announce recently that they signed William Hakansson to an entry level contract. The defenseman, who was drafted in the second round in the recent draft, impressed during his visit here while attending Carolina’s prospect camp.
The NHL schedule was released Thursday, and Buffalo Sabres fans likely looked at it with one date in mind – the return of now-former Sabres star right winger and new Washington Capitals sniper Alex Tuch. But while Buffalo plays the Capitals in Washington on October 24 and November 19, Sabres fans won’t be able to cheer or boo Tuch in Buffalo until the two teams clash for the third and final time on March 18 – eight full months from now.
That said, it’s this writer’s opinion that, when Tuch does return to Buffalo, Sabres fans should be giving Tuch a warm welcome.
The end for Tuch in Buffalo comes after he’s spent five seasons in Buffalo following a trade from the Vegas Golden Knights. And in those five seasons, Tuch delivered solid results, even when the Sabres team around him was unable to be a Stanley Cup playoff team. He generated at least 33 goals and 66 points in three of the past four seasons, at a very team-friendly $4.75-million-per-season salary.
While the Sabres team he was part of continued to struggle to make the playoffs, Tuch never complained or big-timed anyone. He was reliable and gave Buffalo a power forward that only a few teams can boast of employing, and he could’ve signed an extension with the Sabres long ago. So now, both the Sabres and Tuch made their own business decisions, and each side had every right to choose to move on. And that’s what’s happened here.
The salary cap is designed to redistribute talent, and that's what the Capitals have done by acquiring Tuch. Tuch gave the Sabres a lot of good years, even when the team has struggled. He could’ve asked out at any point in time, and he didn’t.
And Buffalo could’ve kept him for the long haul by re-signing him before he hit the open market this summer, but the Sabres chose not to. If you’re going to boo Tuch for that, you should be booing Sabres management and ownership just as much. And you can do that starting in Game 1 of their home schedule on October 3 against the Chicago Blackhawks.
But it’s easier to just lob raspberries at Tuch rather than the bigger picture in Buffalo, isn’t it? You can call a player ‘selfish’ for getting as much money as the market will bear, but we’re not going to do that. The Sabres had a roller-coaster season, but Tuch played his part, putting up 33 goals and 66 points in 79 games. And he deserves credit for that.
The NHL’s salary cap is designed to redistribute talent, and that's what the Capitals have done by acquiring Tuch. He gave the Sabres some of the best years of his career,’and in the end, both the team and Tuch have, of their own volition, chose separate paths. That happens sometimes, even in the best scenarios. And Tuch isn't the villain for making the best business deal he could.
By the time Tuch rolls into Buffalo in mid-March, Sabres fans will have three-quarters of the season to debate and discuss, so we predict that will take some of the anger out of Sabres fans when they see Tuch in person.
Tuch has accepted a deal that everyone would take were it offered to them. And we don’t believe he should be crucified for that decision. He’s now 30 years old, so Tuch has less road ahead of him than behind him. It’s natural he’d want to go to a team he thinks has the best chance at a championship. And the reconstituted Capitals certainly have an easier road to a Cup final than the Sabres do in the highly-competitive Atlantic Division.
In the end, Tuch took the best deal he could get in a businessman’s decision. You can be upset that he didn’t stay in Buffalo for the rest of his career, but there’s no question that Sabres ownership and GM Jarmo Kekalainen should also be targets of your anger and frustration.
When Tuch steps on the ice in Buffalo as a member of the Capitals, the right thing to do is to cheer him for the time he spent in Western New York. He didn’t win a Cup with the Sabres, but Tuch fought a good fight for Buffalo, and he deserves a happy sendoff as he and the Sabres move in their own preferred direction.
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Connor McMichael has signed a six-year, $40.5 million contract with the St. Louis Blues.
General manager Alex Steen, who took over the job from Doug Armstrong on July 1, announced the deal Thursday. McMichael will count $6.75 million against the salary cap through the 2031-32 NHL season.
McMichael joined the team as part of the return from the Washington Capitals in the Jordan Kyrou trade last month. St. Louis also got a first-round pick and prospect Milton Gastrin.
This long-term contract more than triples McMichael's salary after he made $2.1 million each of the past two seasons.
The 25-year-old forward is coming off setting a career high with 32 assists and also scoring 14 goals in 78 games with the Capitals. He has 162 points in 333 regular season and playoff games since making his debut in the league in 2021 after getting taken with the 25th pick in the 2019 draft.
ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis Blues and Connor McMichael were destined to be matched up despite the clock ticking on an arbitration hearing.
The chances of the restricted free agent forward and the team reaching June 25 were slim to none, but nevertheless, the clock was still ticking.
Until Thursday when the two sides reached agreement on a six-year, $40.5 million contract that will pay the 25-year-old an average annual value of $6.75 million. It carries a three-team modified no-trade clause the final four years, including expiring Feb. 1 on the expiring year, according to puckpedia.com.
So it wasn't a question of if McMichael would get his contract but when.
"Just based off those first few phone calls, it seems like they're excited to have me and happy that they were able to acquire me," McMichael said of the Blues. "For me, that's all that matters is that this organization wants me and appreciates me. That's going to be a big thing.
"... It's a team that's looking to build and get better and better each year. There's quite a few guys the same age as me, so that's real exciting."
McMichael, acquired from the Washington Capitals along with a 2026 first-round pick and a 2025 second-round prospect (Milton Gastrin) for Jordan Kyrou, recorded 46 points (14 goals, 32 assists) for the Capitals last season after putting up a career-best 26 goals and 57 points in 2024-25 over 82 games.
He joins a group as part of a young core of forwards that includes Robert Thomas, Jimmy Snuggerud, Dylan Holloway Jake Neighbours, Dalibor Dvorsky, Jonatan Berggren and newly acquired Mason McTavish.
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The Chicago Blackhawks have released their schedule for the 2026-27 season, which is a slate of 84 games, up from 82. The full schedule came out on Thursday after every team announced its home opener on Wednesday.
The Blackhawks will visit every building in the NHL at least once, and every team will come to the United Center at least once. From late September to early April, these 84 games will see the Blackhawks attempt to take a step in their rebuild.
Every game will be something special in its own way, but some games stick out more than others when it comes to the "must-see" mentality. These are the five to circle right away on the calendar:
September 29th - @ Vegas Golden Knights
The Chicago Blackhawks will open their season on the road with a match against the Vegas Golden Knights, who happen to be the reigning Western Conference Champions.
Right off the bat, the Blackhawks have as tough a test as they will face. The Golden Knights will kick off their 10th season in the NHL with this game, and the Blackhawks will be hoping to catch them at a vulnerable time to kick off their 101st season with a win.
October 6th - vs St. Louis Blues
After playing Vegas, the Blackhawks have two more road games against the Utah Mammoth and Buffalo Sabres before coming home to face the St. Louis Blues in their home opener on October 6th.
It is always a special time for the players, organization, and fanbase to return to the United Center for a fresh season, which is why this game is worth circling on the calendar.
October 10th - vs Carolina Hurricanes
On October 10th, the Chicago Blackhawks will welcome the Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes to the United Center for their first and only visit. Like Vegas, the team that Carolina defeated in the Final, this is a great test for the young Blackhawks early in the season. All of the games up to this point will be played without Connor Bedard.
December 18th/20th - vs Ottawa Senators in Germany
The Chicago Blackhawks will face the Ottawa Senators for two games in Germany this season as part of the NHL Global Series. This initiative allows fans from across the world to see NHL hockey in person, and the Blackhawks are one of the teams this year. Connor Bedard should be back by this point.
January 30th - @ San Jose Sharks
The last game for the Chicago Blackhawks before their 10-day break for the All-Star Game will be in Northern California against the San Jose Sharks. This will be Connor Bedard's first meeting of the season with his friend and player rival Macklin Celebrini.
The funny thing is that their return game following the break is also against the Sharks in San Jose. Then, later in the season on March 16th, the Sharks will make their one trip to the United Center.
Before long, this is going to be a premier rivalry in the Western Conference because both teams are on the come-up at the same time, and it will be a treat to witness the matchup in 2026-27.
Potential For More
All of these are relatively early in the season. If there is going to be more intrigue later in the campaign, it would likely mean that the Blackhawks were having a good season, causing these games to be more exciting. If people are circling more games on their calendar late in the year, that means the team (or someone on the team) is doing big things.
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The Detroit Red Wings closed the book on one of the most significant eras in franchise history on Wednesday, as Steve Yzerman stepped down from his role as general manager and executive vice president of Hockey Operations, transitioning into a senior advisory role.
The move brings an end to what was ultimately a lackluster stretch for the organization, one defined by a lengthy rebuild that never fully delivered.
Yzerman, who spent 22 seasons as Detroit's captain during his playing days, left the Red Wings organization years ago to build a winner elsewhere, taking the reins of the Tampa Bay Lightning and constructing an eventual Stanley Cup contender.
His roster reached the Stanley Cup Final in 2015, and with additional tweaks from successor Julien BriseBois, that same core would go on to win back to back championships. While it's difficult to measure exactly how much credit belongs to Yzerman versus BriseBois for those titles, Yzerman had already proven he could build a winner from the ground up.
That track record made him an obvious target when the Red Wings came calling, and Yzerman returned to Detroit in April of 2019. What became known around the league as the "Yzerplan" was billed as a methodical, multi-year approach built on drafting and developing young talent while making calculated additions along the way, eventually forming a true contender.
Instead, the plan never fully materialized, and the Red Wings missed the playoffs for a tenth consecutive season this past year.
In many ways, the approach mirrored the Philadelphia 76ers' infamous "Process," banking on years of difficulty in exchange for sustained future success. Now, with Yzerman's tenure as GM officially over, it's worth looking back at some of the moves that defined his time running the franchise, for better and for worse.
Best: Locking Up Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond
Signing elite young talent never comes cheap, but Yzerman's belief in Seider and Raymond paid dividends. Seider has developed into one of the league's premier defensemen, and his $8.55 million cap hit through 2031 already looks like a bargain. The same goes for Raymond, who signed for $8.075 million through 2032 and has since become a point-per-game player.
Worst: Trading Jake Walman for Future Considerations
On June 25th, 2024, Detroit shipped defenseman Jake Walman to the San Jose Sharks for future considerations, a deal widely attributed to cap clearing amid reported friction between Walman and the organization.
The trade has aged poorly, as Walman broke out with San Jose, posting 32 points in 50 games as an offensive defenseman. The Sharks would later flip him to the Edmonton Oilers for a conditional 2026 first-round pick, a return Detroit could have used for themselves, not to mention losing a talented piece on their blue line.
Best: The Alex DeBrincat Trade
On July 9th, 2023, the Red Wings sent Dominik Kubalik, Donovan Sebrango, a 2024 conditional first-round pick and a 2024 fourth-round pick to the Ottawa Senators in exchange for Alex DeBrincat.
The move paid off in a big way, as DeBrincat has been one of Detroit's top offensive weapons over the past two seasons, leading the team with 66 goals to go along with 71 assists for 137 points, third-most on the roster in that span.
Meanwhile, Kubalik was eventually moved to Chicago, Sebrango has made little impact at the NHL level, the fourth-rounder became winger Javon Moore, and the conditional first eventually became forward Dean Letourneau, who is now in the Boston Bruins system.
Worst: The Justin Holl Signing
Heading into the 2023 offseason, the Toronto Maple Leafs were more than happy to part ways with underperforming defenseman Justin Holl, who they had been paying $2 million per season.
Detroit not only added a player who had struggled against one of their fiercest rivals, but gave him a raise with a $3.4 million cap hit over three seasons. The deal played out largely as expected, with Holl managing just 13 points in 111 games over the first two seasons before spending the final year of his contract entirely in the minors, eventually being dealt to the St. Louis Blues as part of the Justin Faulk trade.
For a young and developing roster, adding a veteran presence like Patrick Kane proved to be an ideal fit. Over three seasons in Detroit, Kane helped mentor younger players like Lucas Raymond while still producing on the ice, tallying 57 goals and 106 assists for 163 points in 189 games.
Worst: The Justin Faulk Trade
At the 2026 trade deadline, Yzerman sent Justin Holl, prospect Dmitri Buchelnikov, a 2026 first-round pick and a 2026 third-round pick to the St. Louis Blues for rental defenseman Justin Faulk.
The move was widely criticized after Detroit stumbled to a 6-10-3 finish, missing the playoffs and surrendering a valuable first-round pick in the process. Faulk remains under contract for next season and could still provide value as a veteran mentor for young defensemen like Seider, Axel Sandin-Pellikka and Simon Edvinsson.
But if the Red Wings miss the playoffs again next season, the trade will go down as the final costly misstep in Yzerman's tenure.
Best: First Five First-Round Picks (2019-2022)
Drafting and developing talent worked out early and often for Yzerman. His first five first-round selections as GM, Seider (sixth overall, 2019), Raymond (fourth overall, 2020), Simon Edvinsson (sixth overall, 2021), Sebastian Cossa (15th overall, 2021) and Marco Kasper (eighth overall, 2022), all look like hits.
All are already making an impact at the NHL level, aside from Cossa, who is expected to get his opportunity with the Utah Mammoth next season. Tasked with rebuilding the Red Wings with essentially only Dylan Larkin as a foundation, Yzerman quickly unearthed multiple franchise cornerstones.
Worst: Trading Sebastian Cossa for J.P. Hurlbert
It's still too early to fully judge the long-term impact of a trade made less than a month ago, but the optics are far from favorable. Despite Detroit's deep goaltending pipeline, Cossa looked like the franchise's presumptive goaltender of the future.
Instead of using him to bring back immediate help, Yzerman moved him to the Utah Mammoth for the 23rd overall pick, a selection lower than where Cossa himself was drafted, along with prospect J.P. Hurlbert.
If Hurlbert fails to develop into a full-time NHL contributor and Cossa emerges as Utah's franchise goaltender, this deal could end up looking like one of the final missteps of Yzerman's Detroit tenure.
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