Over the years, there have been three players to wear the number 62 for the San Jose Sharks, but for more than half a decade, it belonged to Kevin Labanc.
Labanc originally joined the Sharks organization as a sixth-round pick out of the Ontario Hockey League’s Barrie Colts in the 2014 NHL Draft. The Staten Island native then made his professional debuts at both the NHL and American Hockey League level during the 2016-17 season.
Labanc then remained with the Sharks through the 2023-24 season. That summer, he entered unrestricted free agency for the first time in his career and signed a short-term deal with the Columbus Blue Jackets.
When his stint came to an end, Labanc totaled 478 games played, 82 goals, and 225 points during his time in San Jose.
After one year in Columbus, Labanc went overseas and signed with the Shanghai Dragons of the Kontinental Hockey League. After one season in the KHL, Labanc signed a contract with the SC Rapperswil-Jona Lakers in the Swiss National League earlier this summer.
It remains to be seen if we’ll ever see Labanc back in the NHL, but regardless, he’s continuing an impressive career over in Europe.
Stan Bowman keeps saying the roster is set. Fine. Write it in pen if you want.
But "set" on July 31 and "set" on opening night have never meant the same thing in this league, and the Edmonton Oilers, along with every other team, know this. Injuries happen. Slumps happen. Somebody in the top nine takes a bad step in October and suddenly the guy in Bakersfield isn't a prospect anymore, he's the answer. So while the NHL group looks locked in on paper, the real offseason story is one level down in the AHL: who's actually close enough to matter this year, and who's still doing the work.
Start with Isaac Howard, because the Oilers already have. The word is he doesn't need a warm-up lap through the AHL. He makes the team as a left wing, full stop, which is a real jump for a player who was raw enough a year ago that scouts were telling people to slow down on him. Somebody clearly didn't listen.
William Nicholl is getting the same kind of treatment, which is rare for a rookie. His skating and his habits away from the puck are advanced enough that he's in the mix for penalty-kill minutes right out of camp, not just waiting his turn on a call-up list. If that holds, maybe he's making a dent in the roster. AHL roster that is.
Owen Michaels signed for two more years this summer, and that's not the kind of deal you hand a player you're planning to bury in the minors. He's not projected to break camp with Edmonton, but the expectation is he sees NHL games this winter, and probably sooner rather than later. The first time somebody in the top six goes down, watch for his name.
Josh Samanski is the one still sweating it out. He's got a real shot at making the Oilers out of camp, but he's fighting for the job rather than being handed it, and there's a big difference between those two training camps.
Then there's Bakersfield, where the more interesting bet is sitting.
Matt Savoie's 20-year-old season is the blueprint: 19 goals, 35 assists, 66 games, a point-per-game pace that puts him in company most Oilers prospects never sniff. The history on skilled forwards at that age says volume matters as much as production. Somewhere around 100 AHL games, which he didn't quite hit, a player either starts pulling away from the league or he doesn't.
Now there's Quinn Hutson, Atu Raty and James Stefan who make up the right-wing depth in Bakersfield, and none of them are pushing an NHL door yet. Viljami Marjala can put up points at the AHL without much trouble (60 in 72 games), but that hasn't translated upstairs. Tommy Lafrenière and the rest of the junior-eligible names are further out still, a year or two from being part of any conversation that matters.
None of this group is walking into an NHL job in September. The roster's full, the cap's tight, and Bowman has made his bet already: spend now, bank the space for next summer, let the kids force the issue if they can. That's just where the organization is.
That's exactly why the Bakersfield roster is worth more attention than usual this year. Because everyone wants to know whether the help is ready the moment the team actually does.
It appears as though the NHL career of former Detroit Red Wings forward Tomas Nosek, who began his professional journey with the franchise, has come to a close.
Nosek has signed with HC Dynamo Pardubice of the Czech Extraliga. He'll now play in the same city where he was born in 1992 and for the same organization where he began his playing career.
Tomáš Nosek se vrací domů! 🏡
Zkušený útočník odešel z Pardubic do NHL v roce 2014. Od té doby nasbíral v nejlepší hokejové lize světa přes 500 startů. V roce 2025 získal Stanley Cup. Nyní se vrací tam, kde to všechno začalo. pic.twitter.com/dDwixfVJ07
Nosek, who was never drafted into the NHL, signed an entry-level contract with the Red Wings in 2014 and began play with the American Hockey League affiliate Grand Rapids Griffins.
He would tally 11 goals with 23 assists in 55 games in his first season in Grand Rapids, later adding another two goals and five assists in 12 Calder Cup Playoff games.
He then appeared in 70 games for Grand Rapids the following season, along with getting his first six games of NHL experience with the Red Wings. In 2016-17, he skated in 11 NHL contests, scoring one goal while adding 15 goals and 26 assists in 51 games for the Griffins.
Left unprotected by the Red Wings in the 2017 NHL Expansion Draft, he was claimed by the Vegas Golden Knights, and would score the very first home goal in regular season history for the franchise against the Arizona Coyotes in October 2017.
Nosek scored four goals with two assists in 17 postseason games that spring, helping Vegas reach the Stanley Cup Final in their inagural season.
Since then, he's played for the Boston Bruins, New Jersey Devils, and Florida Panthers. While with Florida, he won his first career Stanley Cup ring in 2025, registering three assists in 16 postseason games.
This past season, injuries limited him to just 21 games.
Nosek has skated in 514 career NHL games, and has tallied 47 goals with 73 assists. He's also added six goals and 11 assists in 68 career Stanley Cup Playoff games.
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The Chicago Blackhawks, for the first time in a while, are going to be a difficult hockey team to make out of camp if you're a bottom-six forward.
This team isn't a lock to get out of the basement of the Central Division, let alone make the playoffs, but the expectation is another year of improvement. The development of their young stars, plus the new additions to the team, will make them much more difficult to beat on a nightly basis.
When it comes to the forward position, additions like Patrick Kane, Roman Kantserov, and Cole Smith, along with a full-time role for Anton Frondell, eliminate multiple spots that might have been available to internal candidates before the off-season moves.
These players, who all played NHL games in 2025-26, are going to find it difficult to crack the lineup because of the team's newest additions:
Andrew Mangiapane
Andrew Mangiapane came to the Chicago Blackhawks in a 2026 trade with the Edmonton Oilers. The Blackhawks had the cap room (and roster space) to take him on to better their return in the deal.
Magiapane ended up playing 10 games down the stretch with Chicago, but the scoring touch that allowed him to score 35 goals back in 2021-22 seems to be completely gone.
If he wants one more attempt to find his game, it may be best for him to get to another team. It doesn't seem like he is in their plans as they create their NHL forward roster, and he is not even the best option as a 13th forward.
The one thing that Mangiapane did in his career was scoring, so if he doesn't bring that as a smaller forward, there isn't another reason that they have to play him.
Jordan Greenway
Jordan Greenway seemed like a good fit for the 4th line when he was first acquired in the Bowen Byram trade. Since then, however, the organization has added more, which makes it look less and less like a guarantee for him.
Playing Ryan Greene is a better idea than Greenway, and they didn't pay Cole Smith to bench him. Greenway is a great candidate to play while Connor Bedard is absent or as a 13th forward rotating in and out in the early going, but there are 12 better forwards on the team when they are fully healthy.
Landon Slaggert
Landon Slaggert is a solid depth piece who can bring a high-energy game with no warning. However, he had a hard time cracking the lineup in 2025-26, and now the team is even better. He is not considered a prospect anymore, and it's hard to imagine that he does enough to force coach Jeff Blashill to play him.
With the team getting stronger and more experienced with every passing day, Slaggert isn't the guy that they are banking on to be an impactful player out of the gate.
What they do have in Landon Slaggert is a forward who has shown a willingness to be that healthy scratch who comes in now and again.
He, like everyone on the list, may make the team out of camp, but dressing on Opening Night is going to be incredibly difficult. Will playing for the Rockford IceHogs be an option for any of them if they clear waivers? Well, that's up to them.
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As the National Hockey League enters the second month of free agency, a number of former Buffalo Sabres still remain unsigned. At this point of the offseason, players who have not latched on with an NHL club might consider playing in Europe, or taking a short-term deal or professional tryout to earn a one-year deal.
Evander Kane is the most prominent of the unsigned ex-Sabres. The 16-year NHL veteran played three seasons in Buffalo after being the main part of a massive deal with Winnipeg in 2015, but the 34-year-old winger has made a habit of wearing out his welcome for a variety of reasons.
Will the Sabres add some scoring before the start of training camp?
Talent has never been an issue with Kane. He was a fourth overall pick of the Atlanta Thrashers in 2009, and has scored 20 or more goals nine times, but durability has been a problem recently, as he played 43 and 41 games in the first two seasons with Edmonton in 2022 and 2023, and missed the entire 2024-25 season with a series of injuries before returning for a playoff run with the Oilers.
Edmonton traded Kane to Vancouver after their second straight Cup loss to Florida to clear his $5.125 million salary, and for his hometown Canucks, he scored 31 points (13 goals, 18 assists) in 71 games. Having something left in the tank may not be the issue. At this point in his career, most clubs may believe that his talent and contribution would not outweigh the distraction that he could potentially cause.
Outlook
Kane, at most, will get a one-year deal from a team needing to fill out their roster, which might allow them to trade him as a rental before the trade deadline if he has a bounce-back year, but if he hopes to latch on with a contending club, it will likely be on a PTO.
The Buffalo Sabres have been considered to have one of the deepest prospect pools in the NHL, which is in part due to them selecting high in recent drafts because of their not qualifying for the playoffs. The Sabres have displayed an eye for talent, and the organization’s developmental model has begun to yield results, with 2023 first rounder Zach Benson making an impact in the playoffs, and 2024 top pick Konsta Helenius appearing as one of the AHL’s top prospects the last two seasons.
Leading up to the opening of training camp in mid-September, we will look at the club's top 40 prospects. These players are all 25 years old or younger, whose rights are currently held by the Sabres or are on AHL or NHL deals, and have played less than 82 NHL games.
The Sabres have not been really active in adding undrafted college and CHL prospects, since they a pipeline filled with draftees, but the club has found contributors like Zach Metsa, who played a significant chunk of last season in the NHL after joining Rochester on an AHL deal in 2023, and with a number of prospects likely moving from the Amerks to Buffalo full time next season, the club has begun to tap into the free agent market to populate their organization.
Last April, the Sabres signed Western Michigan University center Liam Valente to a one-year AHL deal. The 23-year-old Swede went undrafted through his junior level stint with Linkoping and in 2022 came to North America to play in the NCAA. His first two seasons were uninspiring at Providence, so he used the transfer portal to shift to Western Michigan. In 81 games over two seasons, Valente scored 68 points (34 goals, 34 assists) in 81 games. As a senior he led the club with 20 goals.
The 6’0”, 190 lb center joined the Amerks on a professional tryout contract late in the AHL season, and scored a goal in his first professional game. He also played in two of Rochester’s three games against the Calder Cup champion Toronto Marlies.
When former Senators GM Pierre Dorion looks back on his tenure in Ottawa, there will undoubtedly be moves he'd like to have back.
Rebuilding an NHL franchise as a first-time GM was never going to be easy. Doing it under one of the league's most hands-on and unpredictable owners was another level altogether. While there were certainly missteps along the way, Dorion deserves lasting credit for a number of moves, including one that continues to age remarkably well.
Selecting Jake Sanderson fifth overall in the 2020 NHL Draft.
Steve Warne and Gregg Kennedy discuss which players might fill out the Senators top six this fall.
At the time, the pick wasn't universally applauded. Some draft analysts believed that if Ottawa wanted a defenceman that high, Jamie Drysdale was the better option. Six years later, there isn't much debate.
Dorion and his scouting staff got it right.
In fact, they got it spectacularly right when Dorion later signed Sanderson to an eight-year, $64 million contract in a deal that now looks like one of the NHL's best bargains.
Sanderson still has six seasons remaining on that contract, so the Senators have one of the league's elite young defencemen completely locked in as he enters the prime of his career.
His fourth NHL season last year was shaping up to be his best yet until a shoulder injury cost him 13 games. He still put up 54 points in 67 games, putting him on pace to shatter his previous career high.
Most importantly, his all-around game continues to evolve. Whether it's shutting down the opposition's best forwards, logging huge minutes in all situations or leading the charge up ice, Sanderson is regarded by fans and media as one of the league's very best defensemen.
But nothing compares to the praise that comes from your peers, and when it comes from a star division rival who plays your position, that carries even more weight.
Boston Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy appeared on the Wingmen podcast this week and spoke glowingly about Sanderson when he was asked by the hosts which Team USA player impressed him the most among players he didn't know a lot about.
"At the Four Nations, it was Sandy," McAvoy said. "Like, I knew he was a stud, but then it was kind of when he started playing, I was like, all right, Sandy's unbelievable."
McAvoy's comments reinforce what Ottawa hockey fans have known for years. Sanderson has the rare ability to control a game without demanding much attention. He skates effortlessly, defends with poise, moves the puck with precision and makes it all seem so casual.
At just 24, Sanderson is already one of the faces of the franchise. With Brady Tkachuk now gone, a new leadership group will eventually emerge, and it's fair to wonder whether Sanderson will be the next man up to wear the C in Ottawa.
The St. Louis Blues have added plenty of young talent this off-season, and they remain on the prowl for another young left-handed defenseman in the Carolina Hurricanes' Alexander Nikishin.
Rumors began linking the Blues to Nikishin earlier this off-season when the Hurricanes revealed they were willing to listen to trade offers for Nikishin.
The 24-year-old defender is currently a restricted free agent without a contract. The Russian defender made his long-awaited move to the NHL near the conclusion of the 2024-25 NHL season, but played his first full NHL season this year.
In his rookie year, Nikishin scored 11 goals and 23 points in 81 games, finishing seventh in Calder Trophy voting and landing on the All-Rookie first team. He featured in 17 playoff games as the Hurricanes went on to win the Stanley Cup.
But despite all the promise he showed, the Hurricanes are open to moving on from him, largely due to their left-handed defensive depth of Jaccob Slavin, K'Andre Miller, and Shayne Gostisbehere.
With the defensive situation in Carolina and the rumored asking price for Nikishin around $8 million, it makes sense that the Hurricanes are gauging the market. With no resolution in sight, teams will keep calling, and according to The Athletic's Jeremy Rutherford, the Blues remain one of the leading candidates.
Nikishin fits every need of the Blues. He boasts a 6-foot-3, 218-pound frame, is a strong defender, and brings solid offensive instincts. With Nikishin and Philip Broberg as the Blues' top two left-handed defenders, the Blues would be set for the long haul.
The issue the Blues face is determining whether Nikishin is a good fit; it's whether they are willing to pay the price to trade for him, and if they believe he is worth the contract he desires.
What the Hurricanes are hoping to receive in return has not been revealed. Still, the Canes have been determined to move on from Jesperi Kotkaniemi's $4.82 million salary, and some speculation suggests that Carolina might be inclined to include Kotkaniemi in a Nikishin trade.
Adding what could be $13 million against the salary cap is a difficult feat for most teams, especially the Blues, who currently only have about $4.3 million in cap space, according to puckpedia.com.
Nikishin would be a great addition for the Blues and would provide them with a real foundation on the left side of their defense.
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PITTSBURGH, PA - APRIL 27: Tommy Novak #18 of the Pittsburgh Penguins skates against the Philadelphia Flyers in Game Five of the First Round of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs at PPG PAINTS Arena on April 27, 2026 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Joe Sargent/NHLI via Getty Images)
NHLI via Getty Images
PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Pittsburgh Penguins signed dependable forward Tommy Novak to a three-year contract extension on Friday. The deal, which begins during the 2027-28 season, carries an average annual value of $4.65 million.
The 29-year-old Novak collected 16 goals and 26 points in 82 games last season while helping the Penguins return to the playoffs following a three-year absence.
Novak, who bounced between the second and third line during his first full season in Pittsburgh, had been scheduled to become a free agent next summer. The extension instead keeps him in the fold for the rest of the decade and positions him to be part of the club’s nucleus as it transitions out of the twilight of the Sidney Crosby/Evgeni Malkin/Kris Letang era.
The dog days of the NHL offseason are slowly coming to an end.
Minnesota Wild stars Matt Boldy and Brock Faber were back on the ice this week as preparations for the 2026-27 season officially began. Bartlett Hockey, the agency that represents both players, shared a post on Instagram showing the pair skating at Ridder Arena on the University of Minnesota campus.
While it may only be late July, seeing two of the Wild's biggest stars already training is another reminder that hockey season is quickly approaching.
Boldy is coming off another outstanding season in Minnesota, continuing to establish himself as one of the NHL's premier young wingers. The 25-year-old will once again be counted on to provide elite scoring alongside Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek as the Wild look to build on last season's success.
Faber, meanwhile, has rapidly developed into one of the league's top all-around defensemen. After another heavy-minute campaign, the former Golden Gopher is expected to anchor Minnesota's blue line once again this season while playing in every situation.
The skate also featured several other NHL players represented by Bartlett Hockey, including Utah Mammoth captain Clayton Keller, former Gopher teammate of Faber and current Mammoth center, Logan Cooley and former Wild power forward Jordan Greenway.
Although training camp is still several weeks away, many NHL players begin skating together in late July and early August to rebuild timing and conditioning before informal captain's practices begin later in the summer.
For Wild fans eager for hockey to return, seeing Boldy and Faber back on the ice is another encouraging sign that the countdown to the 2026-27 season is officially underway.
Bartlett Hockey's post offered a brief glimpse at the pair getting back to work, and if this week is any indication, Minnesota's core is already laying the foundation for another important season.
Criteria for our coaches’ ranking include each coach’s accomplishments, their short-term and long-term history, as well as their expectations and general reputation. But full disclosure – this ranking is subjective.
Hynes led the Wild to the NHL’s seventh-best record the past season at 46-24-12. The Wild allowed the fourth-fewest goals a game in the NHL and had the third-best power play in the league.
The Wild's bench boss is heading into his final year of his contract and is expected to get an extension soon. As Wild general manager Bill Guerin said after the season, it seems like Hynes will be staying around for more seasons after this upcoming one.
PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Pittsburgh Penguins signed dependable forward Tommy Novak to a three-year contract extension on Friday. The deal, which begins during the 2027-28 season, carries an average annual value of $4.65 million.
The 29-year-old Novak collected 16 goals and 26 points in 82 games last season while helping the Penguins return to the playoffs following a three-year absence.
Novak, who bounced between the second and third line during his first full season in Pittsburgh, had been scheduled to become a free agent next summer. The extension instead keeps him in the fold for the rest of the decade and positions him to be part of the club's nucleus as it transitions out of the twilight of the Sidney Crosby/Evgeni Malkin/Kris Letang era.
DALLAS, TEXAS - FEBRUARY 28: Nathan Bastian #11 of the Dallas Stars celebrates after scoring a goal during the third period against the Nashville Predators at American Airlines Center on February 28, 2026 in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Sam Hodde/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Good morning, New Jersey Devils fans!
As a bit of a site note, I hope you are all getting ready for the annual Top 25 Under 25 community vote. I will be posting about that soon as we have entered the mid-offseason lull. To Sunny Mehta’s credit, he did not do a press conference a couple of days into July and call the offseason there, as the Devils have continued to make moves here and there throughout the month. Between new coaches, Anthony Mantha, and Utica Comets signings, it has felt like we have had more to discuss than usual.
While the Devils’ roster is mostly set with a bit of overage among bottom six players, left-handed defensemen, and goaltenders, the Devils can always boost training camp competition further by signing players to Professional Try-Outs (PTOs). Over the last several years, the Devils have not had a ton of successful PTOs. They had Kevin Rooney and Luke Glendening last year and chose the latter (the wrong choice), they had Kevin Labanc in 2024 and let him go (the wrong choice) before he put up decent numbers in a half season for Columbus, they had Max Willman on a PTO in 2023 before signing him (the wrong choice) and subjecting fans to very poor play. I’d say the last time they had a really good PTO was in 2021 when they had Jimmy Vesey, Mark Jankowski, and Tyler Wotherspoon, but their biggest mistake was not signing Jankowski alongside Vesey and Wotherspoon (AHL).
It is possible to find NHL players with a PTO, so here are six options who I think could fit these New Jersey Devils.
Option One: Adam Henrique, C
Adam Henrique is the oldest player on this list at 36 years old, and he is coming off a difficult offensive season where he was used in a shutdown sort of role for the Edmonton Oilers. Public analytic models like HockeyViz and Evolving-Hockeystill like Henrique’s underlying impacts, but he had a down finishing season for the first time in his solid career. With the recent signing of former NHL forward Colin White, Sunny Mehta has added plenty of players who can challenge Nick Bjugstad for the fourth-line center role, and I think it would be great to cut our cap hit there in half while probably getting a little better production out of Henrique than they can get out of Bjugstad. Henrique is a true NHLer, so I think this is one they should strongly cosnider.
Option Two: Nathan Bastian, RW
Another familiar face for Devils fans, former fourth liner Nate Bastian had a pretty decent season in the 13th forward role for the Dallas Stars last season. He is a strong bottom six defensive winger, and I would consider him a good option if it looks like Stefan Noesen is still struggling to return from his injuries over the last two seasons. However, Bastian deals with health issues himself as a physical forward, as his shoulder seems to bother him from time to time. But with six goals in 36 games last season, he is still capable of the cheap production the Devils could use on their fourth line, and he is familiar with head coach Sheldon Keefe. If Bastian can finally stay fully healthy, I think there’s a 10 or 15-goal forward in there.
Option Three: Adam Boqvist, RHD
Adam Boqvist might be coming off the worst season of his career with the New York Islanders, but the younger brother of current Devil Jesper Boqvist always had promise as a puck moving right-handed defenseman. Still only 25 and turning 26 in a couple of weeks, Adam could reasonably be signed and passed through to Utica, but a strong showing out of him could introduce interesting questions for the Devils. Since the team currently has far more NHL-caliber left-handed defensemen than righties despite the entire right side of defense having difficult recent injury histories, they might want to have a little more insurance than Seamus Casey if someone goes down. Boqvist has a little more size, 272 games of NHL experience, and was at one point signed by the Florida Panthers, where he had 6 points in 18 games in 2024-25 before being selected off waivers by the Islanders that season. Though Boqvist would be hard pressed to crack the lineup, this might be a situation he would be willing to fight through with a chance to play with his brother.
Option Four: Pierre-Olivier Joseph, LHD
Who says you can have enough defensemen, though? Pierre-Olivier Joseph may be another left-handed player, but he is one of the fastest skaters available among current free agents. Joseph also has a very strong analytical profile, though he has not fully stuck in the NHL since he played 75 games for Pittsburgh in 2022-23. At just 26 years old, Olivier would be a similar fit to Declan Chisholm and Vladislav Kolyachonok, but could still improve the competition level among that group during training camp. Because of how stacked this area of the roster is in terms of current contracts, I would regard him as the least likely option here, yet still a decent one.
Option Five: Pavol Regenda, W
Perhaps a bit of an unknown to most, Pavol Regenda is a rare Group 6 UFA at just 26 years old after scoring nine goals in 24 games for the San Jose Sharks. In his NHL career, the 6’3” and 215 pound forward has 10 goals and three assists in 43 games with 78 hits, and he may also be an option for the Devils’ bottom six this season. He also had three goals and two assists for Team Slovakia at the Olympics this year, and he would be an attractive option for the Devils since he would not count as an AHL veteran if passed through waivers at any point. There is a bit of disagreement on Regenda within analytical models, with HockeyViz regarding him as a true bottom six player while Evolving-Hockey’s RAPM rates him more highly, but I would think that fans would generally like a big guy that might score goals. In that sense, he would provide competition with the team’s bottom six wingers and Riley Tufte, the 6’6” AHL veteran signed by Mehta and Birch earlier in the offseason. Regenda is somewhat younger and has had some level of recent NHL productivity, so I would be interested to see him.
Option Six: Matt Murray, G
I am a bit surprised that Matt Murray is still unsigned at this point of the offseason. Sure, the guy has been hurt a lot, but he did have a .922 save percentage in five NHL appearances for Seattle last season. He did not play any AHL games, though, as injuries kept him at practices only for most of the season. Since I am not the biggest believer in David Rittich, I think it would be a good idea to add some competition for who would be the third goaltender in the mix for the New Jersey Devils. But, with respect to Matt Murray, I would not sign him to stuff him in the AHL, which would make him a better PTO candidate than a guy I would want signed to a deal right now, which makes him similar to Adam Henrique in that.
Your Thoughts
What do you think of these PTO options? Do you think any of them could be good choices for the New Jersey Devils? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for reading.
The Athletic recently ran an article that listed the biggest on-ice villain in each franchise's history, and for the Montreal Canadiens, Arpon Basu went with former power forward and now Boston Bruins President and alternate governor Cam Neely.
Basu writes that after beating the Canadiens in the playoffs in 1943, the Bruins went on to lose their next 18 playoff series against the Habs until Neely’s arrival allowed them to beat the Canadiens three out of five duels from 1987 to 199. In those 26 games, he scored 20 goals and was basically unstoppable for the Habs in the postseason. Basu also adds that Neely could not only beat you on the scoreboard, but he could also beat you up.
While I can understand going for Neely, who was a Habs nemesis for years, he ended up only playing 13 seasons in the NHL thanks to a knee-on-knee collision with Ulf Samuelson that caused a knee injury that would eventually lead to hip issues. In 726 games, he put up 395 goals and 299 assists for 694 points while racking up 1241 penalty minutes. He was a great player and a formidable foe, but if I had to choose the ultimate on-ice villain for the Canadiens, I couldn’t help but go for another Bruin: Zdeno Chara.
Back in 2011, when Max Pacioretty was just starting to become an impact player for the Habs at the age of 22, he was the victim of a Chara hit that saw him hit the glass between the two team benches; it was very much as if he had hit a wall, and he fell on the ice unconscious. You could have heard a pin drop in the Bell Centre on that day; Chara silenced an arena that’s always raucous for a Canadiens-Bruins duel. There was real concern in that moment not only for Pacioretty’s health but also for his career. The sniper was taken to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with both a severe concussion and a fractured fourth cervical vertebra.
What made the hit even worse for Canadiens fans, however, was the fact that the Bruins captain wasn’t even given a suspension for the play. Then senior vice-president of hockey operations for the NHL at the time Mike Murphy said in a statement that: "After a thorough review of the video, I can find no basis to impose supplemental discipline. This hit resulted from a play that evolved and then happened very quickly — with both players skating in the same direction and with Chara attempting to angle his opponent into the boards. I could not find any evidence to suggest that, beyond this being a correct call for interference, Chara targeted the head of his opponent, left his feet or delivered the check in any other manner that could be deemed to be dangerous."
The League ruling followed a telephone hearing with Chara on the day that fell to Murphy, because Colin Campbell, the NHL disciplinarian back then, was the father of Bruins player Gregory Campbell. From then on, Chara was hated with a passion by the Habs fans and any time he touched the puck at the Bell Centre, he was copiously booed. The blueliner went on to play another 11 seasons in the NHL, and the Montreal faithful never wavered in their booing of his on-ice play. To this day in Montreal, when a player is booed, it can be referred to as getting the Chara treatment.
However, the Montreal crowd, being a knowledgeable hockey crowd, can still recognize a player's greatness. When Chara played the 1,500th game of his career, against the Canadiens at the Bell Center, the villain actually received a roaring ovation following a tribute video. For a few minutes, the crowd forgot about the Pacioretty incident, but it definitely didn’t forgive.
TheHockeyNews.com is running a series ranking each NHL coach, going in reverse order from No. 32 to No. 1.
The criteria for these rankings include each coach’s accomplishments, short- and long-term history, expectations, and general reputation. Of course, these rankings are subjective.
Florida Panthers coach Paul Maurice was unsurprisingly very high on this list, landing in the No. 3 spot, ahead of fellow NHL Stanley Cup champion coaches like Jared Bednar, Joel Quenneville and Mike Sullivan.
Maurice has been everything the Panthers hoped for and more when they signed the now 59-year-old to be the head coach. He joined Florida and immediately changed the culture of the organization for the better.
In his first season, the Panthers snuck into the playoffs as the second wild-card team and pulled off arguably the biggest upset in NHL history. They fought their way to the Stanley Cup final but ultimately lost.
In his next two seasons, the Panthers won back-to-back Stanley Cups, cementing themselves in NHL history, with Maurice guiding the franchise.
The 2025-26 season was a difficult campaign for the Panthers, as injuries kept piling up and the team couldn't claw their way into a playoff spot. But the team is healthy heading into the 2026-27 season, and after some major off-season moves, the pressure is now back on the Panthers to be contenders once again.
Maurice could become the NHL's all-time leader in games coached if he continues his NHL career. Maurice has 2,012 regular-season games under his belt as a coach, only 129 behind Scotty Bowman for the most NHL games coached ever.
"Maurice has earned the flowers he's received since Florida's back-to-back championships," said THN.com writer Adam Proteau. "He's been smart enough to have the trust of team ownership everywhere he's worked, and he's made the most of just about every opportunity he's received at the NHL level.
"If he never coached again, Maurice would be a no-brainer Hall of Famer. But he still has the competitive fire burning in him, and he now can add at least one more Cup to his phenomenal resume. The Panthers have the talent to be a playoff team in the Atlantic next season, and Maurice can add to his already-impressive legacy."
Maurice's impact on the Panthers cannot be understated, and if the Panthers hope to bounce back, Maurice will be a key factor in their success.
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