When most modern-day hockey fans think of Bill Guerin, they think of the General Manager of the Minnesota Wild, who also put together a USA Hockey team that brought home a Gold Medal in 2026 for the first time since 1980.
What some people might not know, is that Guerin was actually a great player in the National Hockey League before becoming an executive.
The New Jersey Devils made Guerin the 5th overall pick in the 1989 NHL Draft out of Boston College. It turned out to be a great selection for them, as he played in parts of seven seasons for New Jersey, including 1995, when they won the Stanley Cup.
Guerin, in 380 games with New Jersey, scored 108 goals, 106 assists, and 214 points. He played a role on a team that was elite defensively, knew how to find the back of the net as a collective, and won a lot of games as a result.
On January 4th, 1998, New Jersey traded Guerin to the Edmonton Oilers in a deal that brought in Jason Arnott and Bryan Muir. Of course, Arnott would go on to score an overtime Stanley Cup-winning goal in 2000.
After his four-year run in Edmonton ended in 2001, he spent time with the Boston Bruins, Dallas Stars, St. Louis Blues, New York Islanders, and Pittsburgh Penguins.
In 2009, the Penguins acquired Guerin ahead of the trade deadline and won the Stanley Cup later that spring. Guerin's career ended one year later with two Stanley Cup rings, 429 goals, 427 assists, and 856 points in 1,263 games.
Guerin's points-per-game totals increased after leaving New Jersey, which makes sense, given that they were the defense-minded "trap" team during his tenure. When he left, he went to a handful of systems that favored his offensive abilities a bit more.
Here in 2026, Guerin is in the minds of New Jersey Devils fans again because he has a decision to make about his star defenseman in Minnesota, Quinn Hughes. Of course, Quinn's two younger brothers are part of the modern-day Devils' core, and the speculation is that he'd like to join forces with them one day.
Earlier in the summer, it seemed like a lock that Quinn would stay with Guerin in Minnesota, but every day that passes makes that feel less and less likely. Will Quinn Hughes and Bill Guerin have been Devils players in common when it's all said and done? Only time will tell, but there is no denying the impact that Guerin has already made on New Jersey's hockey team.
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Montreal Gazette writer Stu Cowan sent shockwaves in Montreal Canadiens land earlier this week when he penned an article in which he mentioned that the fact that Arber Xhekaj and Zachary Bolduc weren’t signed led him to believe they could be part of sign-and-trade deals before September 16.
Cowan caught some flak on social media for writing that, because it’s not something fans want to hear, especially not about Xhekaj, whose gritty style and underdog story have elevated him to the level of fan favourite. Unfortunately for both Xhekaj and the fans, he may have more value to the Canadiens as a trade chip. Not because he couldn’t be useful to them on the ice- they need some toughness- but as things stand, they do not play him regularly, and he hardly played in the playoffs. The gritty blueliner is more useful to the team as a trade chip than he is as a seventh defenseman who doesn’t get to see the ice much.
Cowan writing that he could be part of a sign-and-trade deal makes perfect sense. Even though Xhekaj loves Montreal and everything about it and the team, at 25 years old, he needs to do what’s right for him as a player and not as a teammate. Brendan Gallagher didn’t say anything during the season about seeing his ice time melt like snow in the sun, and when he was a healthy scratch in the playoffs, but when the season ended, he said it was pretty obvious he would be moving on. Hockey players want to play, and it’s just normal. Xhekaj is a hockey player, and he wants to play too. Obviously, he’s not in Gallagher’s situation, but it’s a good parallel to understand why he hasn’t signed yet.
Of course, it’s easier to trade a player once he’s signed to a contract and the buyer knows they have the player under control for a set number of years. If the Canadiens do go out and get a right-shot defenseman to play with Lane Hutson, Xhekaj’s odds of having a spot in the lineup would get even slimmer and even if they don’t, as things stand, there isn’t much room for him. Especially not with Adam Engstrom and David Reinbacher looking to make the jump to the NHL. Ideally, though, if Montreal were to trade Xhekaj, it would be outside of the Eastern Conference; that’s not a player you’d want to face too often, especially if he becomes an NHL regular once given a proper opportunity.
As for Bolduc, it’s easy to see what Cowan means when he says he too could be a candidate for a sign-and-trade deal. As I wrote earlier this off-season, I don’t see Kent Hughes gambling on Bolduc and giving him an eight-year contract without having had a chance to thoroughly evaluate him. However, another team may have a different approach and be willing to do that. If Montreal wants to land a top-six player, the Habs will likely have to part with players who have proven they could be an asset in the NHL. I believed Oliver Kapanen could be a candidate to be sacrificed in that way, but if the Canadiens were to deal for a power-forward type of player, it could make sense for their trading partner to be looking for a forward who has some grit.
To maximize Bolduc’s value, it would only be logical to allow the trading partner to negotiate a deal with him, much like the New York islanders allowed the Canadiens to negotiate with Noah Dobson last season before the trade was made. Given the fact that they gave Logan Mailloux to acquire Bolduc, though, the Habs are unlikely to move on from him that soon unless they are getting someone really good in return.
Apparently, Josh Morrissey forgot how to play hockey over the last 12 months.
At least, that's how Jets fans (and most Central Division - and even Western Conference clubs) will interpret the NHL Network's latest ranking of the league's top defencemen.
The annual top-20 list was unveiled this week and somehow, some way, Winnipeg's No. 1 blueliner found himself all the way down at No. 16.
That's 10 spots lower than last summer.
You read that right - 10 spots.
Photo by Bob Frid/USA Today
Morrissey entered the 2025-26 season ranked sixth by NHL Network, firmly entrenched among the game's elite following three consecutive seasons of Norris Trophy-calibre hockey. One year later, he's apparently barely hanging onto a spot in the top 20.
The problem? His play hardly warrants such a dramatic fall.
Sure, Morrissey's offensive totals dipped from the heights of previous seasons. He didn't reach the 76 points he recorded during his breakout 2022-23 campaign, nor the 69 he produced the following year.
Instead, Morrissey had to settle for 14 goals and 55 points in 77 games.
Some decline.
And if you remember correctly, it wasn't exactly a banner year for his Jets. Offence was not happening. Backup goaltending took the lead. Injuries occurred and a veteran heavy lineup skated slowly through the 82 game slate.
The now 31-year-old has produced at least 10 goals and 55 points in four consecutive seasons. Among active NHL defencemen, only Cale Makar and Rasmus Dahlin can say the same.
And Morrissey wasn't exactly sheltered while doing it.
He averaged a career-high 24:43 of ice time per game, once again serving as Winnipeg's do-everything back-ender. Power play, penalty kill, late-game situations, difficult matchups - J-Mo's fingerprints remained all over virtually everything the Jets did from the blue line.
Yet NHL Network dropped him from sixth to 16th - make it make sense.
There were, admittedly, reasons why Morrissey's season didn't carry quite the same shine as years past.
Winnipeg took a significant step backwards after winning the Presidents' Trophy in 2024-25, while Morrissey's highly anticipated trip to the 2026 Winter Olympics ended almost as soon as it began. An upper-body injury suffered in Canada's opening game against Czechia knocked him out for the remainder of the tournament and followed him back to Winnipeg.
But none of that suddenly made Morrissey the NHL's 16th-best defenceman.
This is still a player who has established himself as one of hockey's premier offensive blueliners over the past four seasons. His 2022-23 breakout wasn't a one-off. He backed it up in 2023-24. Then again in 2024-25. Then, even in what could reasonably be described as a "down" year, he scored 14 times and put up 55 points.
That's a pretty comfortable floor.
There is certainly an argument to be made that other defencemen have passed him. The NHL is overflowing with high-end talent on the blue line and younger stars continue to emerge.
But 10 of them in one season? That's where NHL Network's ranking becomes difficult to swallow.
Perhaps Morrissey won't mind.
Before becoming a perennial Norris Trophy candidate, he spent years as one of the league's more overlooked defencemen. He knows what it's like to play without the national recognition his performance deserves. For the first time in a while, he gets to do it again.
Morrissey enters 2026-27 healthy, still firmly entrenched as the engine of Winnipeg's blue line and now armed with something he hasn't had much reason to carry over the past few seasons: A chip on his shoulder.
NHL Network believes there are 15 defencemen better than Josh Morrissey. Now Winnipeg's stud gets an entire season to prove them wrong.
On Sunday, Aug. 9, the NHL Network announced their list of “Top 20 Defensemen Right Now” and ranked Anaheim Ducks star blueliner Jackson LaCombe at 17th. One week after ranking teammate Cutter Gauthier as the NHL’s 19th best winger, LaCombe comes in at 17th among defensemen, sandwiched between Josh Morrissey of the Winnipeg Jets and Victor Hedman of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
“Well, he's on the map and becoming, vastly becoming one of the better, or best, two-way defensemen in the game because of his great skating ability,” NHL Network analyst Ken Daneyko said on the countdown show. “He’s agile; he's mobile. He can do so many things as far as poise and culture. And he's a big, strong kid."
Unsurprisingly, names like Cale Makar, Quinn Hughes, Norris Trophy winner Zach Werenski, Rasmus Dahlin, and Miro Heiskanen ranked atop the list at No. 1-5, respectively.
LaCombe (25), a former second-round pick (39th overall in 2019), was selected by the Ducks from Prep School Shattuck St. Mary’s and was seen as a smart, toolsy long-term project. He proved Anaheim’s amateur scouting staff right after playing his next four seasons at the University of Minnesota, where he eclipsed his production year-after-year and totaled 99 points (19-80=99) in 140 games.
Following his senior year at Minnesota, where he was an alternate captain and led his team to a crushing National Championship defeat, he signed his two-year ELC with the Ducks and made his NHL debut toward the end of the 2022-23 season.
LaCombe had a difficult transition to the NHL in his first full season (2023-24), where he scored just 17 points (2-15=17) in 75 games. He was asked to play much of the season on his off-hand side, up and down the lineup, and with limited power play time, but also difficult minutes at 5v5 and on the penalty kill. His play recognition was slow, his game was simplified, and he struggled to defend the strongest and fastest players in the world.
He signed a two-year contract extension following his rookie season that carried an AAV of $925k.
In 2024-25, the Ducks and LaCombe enjoyed a true breakout season despite opening the season as a healthy scratch. He was confident when leading rushes and patrolling the offensive blueline with the puck on his stick. He began driving to the net without the puck, and breakouts became automatic exits with either a precise first pass or poised, confident, intelligent strides. He tallied 43 points (14-29=43) in 75 games and led the Ducks in ice time with 22:18 TOI/G, becoming an all-situations, true No. 1 defenseman.
Following his breakout, with one-year left on his contract, and days before the 2025-26 season, LaCombe signed an eight-year contract extension with the Ducks worth an AAV of $9 million per season.
In the 2025-26 season, LaCombe built on his breakout and established himself as an elite defenseman in the NHL. He again led the Ducks in ice time, with 24:15 TOI/G, including 3:13 on the power play and 1:39 per game on the penalty kill. He produced 58 points (10-48=58) in all 82 regular season games and was arguably the Ducks’ best player as they clinched the playoffs for the first time in eight seasons.
His season was highlighted by 10 points (1-9=10) in 12 playoff games and (relatively) shutting down (an injured) Connor McDavid, as they defeated the Edmonton Oilers in the first round and went on to lose in the second to the Vegas Golden Knights. Both series lasted six games.
LaCombe has played at the international level for the United States on three separate occasions, winning a Gold Medal at each stop. He notched an assist in six games at the 2021 World Junior Championship, five points (2-3=5) in ten games at the 2025 World Championships, and, though he didn’t suit up, he brought home a Gold Medal from the 2026 Olympic Games as a last-minute replacement for injured Florida Panthers defenseman Seth Jones.
If possible, LaCombe may be relied on even more by the Ducks moving forward. The 2026 offseason saw the departures of his partner Jacob Trouba, captain Radko Gudas, and Stanley Cup winner John Carlson. LaCombe will likely continue to play heavy, difficult minutes and will likely be called upon to impact both top units of the special teams. There may even be a captaincy on the table for him.
With a lack of overall depth on the roster and a stable of young blueliners behind him on the lineup sheet, LaCombe will have to drive offense to a higher degree at that end of the ice and continue to refine his defensive habits deep in his zone, specifically at the goal mouth.
LaCombe was a long-term project who wound up bearing fruit suddenly and unexpectedly, to the point where the surface of his potential seems only scratched. His big-money contract will only just kick in in 2026-27, and he’ll be this season’s 13th (tied) highest-paid defenseman in the NHL. Once an inconceivable thought, there’s a shot he breaks into the top ten on this NHL Network list in the summer of 2027.
The Columbus Blue Jackets have 49 days until opening night at Nationwide Arena. Today we look at the history of jersey #49. There weren`t many who used the number, but at least one had a pretty good career.
Let's take a look.
Dan Fritsche - 2004-08 - The Ohio-born native was picked in the 2003 NHL Draft in the 2nd round.
Fritsche turned pro and became a full-time NHLer in 2005. He played 206 games for the CBJ over four years. He scored 29 goals and totaled 63 points.
In July of 2008, the young speedster was traded to the New York Rangers along with Nikolai Zherdev for Fedor Tyutin and Christian Bäckman. It's safe to say the CBJ won this trade, as Tyutin would go on to become one of the best defensemen to ever play for the Blue Jackets.
On January 29, 2009, Fritsche was traded by the Rangers to the Minnesota Wild. The following season, Fritsche returned to the CBJ organization and would play for the Syracuse Crunch.
In 2010, he left for Europe, where he would play until his retirement in 2016.
TJ Tynan - 2017 - The Blue Jackets drafted Tynan in the 3rd round of the 2011 NHL Draft.
Tynan would only end up playing 3 games for the Jackets during his time with Columbus. Instead, he would spend most of his time playing for the Springfield Falcons and Cleveland Monsters. He played in 76 games for the Monsters during their Calder Cup-winning season of 2015-16 and had 46 points. Tynan has 642 points in 693 career AHL games, including a 98-point season with the Ontario Reign in 2021-22.
He has only played in 25 NHL games and signed with the Colorado Eagles of the AHL for the 25-26 season. Tynan is currently 37th on the all-time AHL list for career points.
He will play for the Springfield Falcons of the AHL in 26-27.
Ryan MacInnis - 2020-21 - MacInnis was drafted by the Arizona Coyotes in the 2nd round of the 2014 NHL Draft.
The son of Hockey Hall of Fame defenseman Al MacInnis had big shoes to fill, which is nearly impossible to do. He was traded to Columbus by Arizona for Jacob Graves and a conditional pick in the 2019 NHL Draft on July 18, 2018.
MacInnis played in 26 games as a Blue Jacket and had a single point. The majority of his time was spent playing for the Cleveland Monsters, where he had two productive years.
He left North America to play in Germany following the 2022 season. He signed with Kölner Haie in 2025, where he remains playing today.
Who was your favorite player to wear #49.
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PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA - APRIL 11: Ville Koivunen #41 of the Pittsburgh Penguins skates with the puck as Jakob Chychrun #6 of the Washington Capitals defends in the first period during the game at PPG PAINTS Arena on April 11, 2026 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Justin Berl/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The Top 25 countdown continues with the most newsworthy young player in the organization of the moment, the man with an eight year contract Ville Koivunen.
Ville Koivunen’s career has contained some contradictory moments so far.
He was a fairly high draft pick of Carolina indicating they liked him…Only to be traded out of the organization before getting going to show they didn’t find him that big in their future.
End up a first full season in North America looking good with seven points in eight games in the NHL…Only to regress back to the AHL after not playing well enough in the NHL the next year.
Getting an eight year contract with a massive cap hit following such an uneven year for an unestablished player might be the biggest contradiction of all. Nothing in Koivunen’s past performance justified a $32 million dollar commitment, but the Penguins gave him one anyways in hopes that his future would be worth it.
Whether or not he lives up to the hype and expectation placed upon him will be one of the more fascinating areas for the Penguins in the upcoming training camp and beyond. Officially, Koivunen will still have to earn his spot on the NHL roster, per Kyle Dubas. Koivunen got a big time NHL contract, yet he still isn’t assured an NHL spot. Another contradiction.
After all these stops and starts, the future for Koivunen appears wide open. Which is an odd thing to say for a player with an eight year contract, though it applies since the Pens have an off ramp built into that contract that might not really make it a long commitment. As almost always with Koivunen’s career, how things appear right now isn’t always how it will remain.
Which, by that logic, could be time for another reversal in a positive direction. There’s some evidence to support an increase in performance for Koivunen, despite the lack of production in 2025-26.
It is worth noting that despite uninspiring production, Koivunen’s xG and shot metrics were stellar last season. PIT just could not score when he was out there.
With his talent there’s reason to believe the production will come. And then you have a solid player locked up cheap. https://t.co/pE8HhNMbuw
The big x-factor is what is happening right now for Koivunen’s off-season training. It’s another crucial summer for him to make gains physically in order to level him up to where he can be more effective in the NHL, an area that was lacking last year. It goes without saying based on the contract that the Pens have been impressed enough by the willingness to put in the work and show improvement to literally buy into his future.
“Over the course of the [2025-26] season, Ville showed excellent commitment in Wilkes-Barre to doing extra work, and he has doubled down on that this summer,” Dubas said last week. “He did not return to his home in Oulu, instead working to set up a new training program in Helsinki. He then informed us that he would be returning to Pittsburgh in mid-August to join the growing number of players we have training here in the summer. His actions gave us assurance, and our staff will continue to push him on and off the ice.”
According to Dubas, neither the team nor player were satisfied with the missed opportunity from last year that saw Koivunen break camp on the first line with Sidney Crosby, only to slide back down to the AHL for a good chunk of the season (“I think he would be the first to say he didn’t make the most of (his opportunity)” is how Dubas put it.)
Despite that disappointment, Dubas made what he called a “bet” on Koivunen with the eight-year contract. That’s usually not how it goes in the NHL, max term contracts are reserved for sure things, not an experiment. Yet here we are.
To pull back the curtain, Pensburgh had Koivunen ranked for 12th in this year’s Top 25 Under 25 before the contract. After consideration, we elected not to change or improve his placement on our list just because he was given a contract that indicates he will be an important player in the future – or at least be given every opportunity to live up to turning the bet into a winner. It’s difficult to place a player whose semi-realistic potential range of options for less than two months from now swing from being in a fairly significant spot in the Pens NHL lineup down to getting waived and being out of the organization completely. A scenario in the middle (being mostly an NHL scratch for Pittsburgh, going unclaimed on waivers and assigned to AHL Wilkes-Barre) are perhaps even more likely than the extreme options to best/worst case outcomes.
For now and until proven otherwise, Koivunen is what he is as a limited player that can look soft, slow and ineffective at the NHL level, despite starting to get paid like something different. The Penguins have more than plenty of candidates as wingers for their roster and Koivunen may or may not even figure into the NHL team at the start of the season. The good news is he offers some versatility, playing 12 games as a left wing last season and 61 total games at right wing, split between his NHL and AHL time. Like most everything else, this is a player looking to find a fit and where he can make an impact.
His young career has already been fraught with ups, downs mixed with with starts, stops and more reversals than a game of Uno. The near future might not be any less tumultuous, as unpredictable as an unestablished player getting a max length contract out of the blue.
Such is the career of Ville Koivunen. Who can say whether the next twist will be a step forward, in place or backwards, but he certainly is a player the team has put a spotlight on due to the bet they decided to make and seeing whether or not the player will live up to his end of it.
Despite a promising start to his pro career with the Philadelphia Flyers, a formerly undrafted defenseman has changed hands and moved to the KHL in hopes of turning a rough few years around.
Although he made the NHL roster out of training camp and stuck for a few months, the Flyers cut ties with the once-promising Egor Zamula, trading him to the Pittsburgh Penguins for forward Phil Tomasino on Dec. 31.
Zamula, 26, never played for the Penguins organization, though, and subsequently signed with the Columbus Blue Jackets as a free agent on Jan. 6 after his contract was terminated, reuniting with former Flyers teammate Ivan Provorov.
Now, though, after having his KHL rights traded a few months back, the 6-foot-4 defenseman is looking to get his career back on track with Russian powerhouse CSKA Moskva, where he'll play alongside former Flyers teammate Denis Gurianov, former NHLers Klim Kostin, Nikita Okhotiuk, and Nikita Nesterov, and prospects like Prokhor Poltapov and Dmitri Gamzin.
"I've never played in the KHL, so both the guys and the coaching staff are giving me advice and going over all the details with me. I'm improving with every practice, feeling better both physically and mentally. There's a lot of new stuff; some things I haven't done in a while, and some I didn't even know about," Zamula was quoted as saying of his move to CSKA by Championat.
"I played with Nikita Okhotyuk at the Traktor academy, and I also know Nikita Nesterov and Denis Zernov. In America, I played with Denis Gurianov, and I also know Klim Kostin. When I transferred here, I already knew half the team, so it was easier for me to integrate."
In a difficult last NHL season split between the Flyers and Blue Jackets, Zamula appeared in 30 games, recording three assists.
Zamula played in 168 NHL games for the Flyers, scoring eight goals, 33 assists, and 41 points with a -12 rating overall, carving out a solid temporary niche for himself as a once-undrafted prospect starting his professional career.
Now, the Chelyabinsk native will return home and play in Russia for the first time since 2016-17.
PITTSBURGH, PA - MARCH 08: Charlie McAvoy #73 of the Boston Bruins skates against Blake Lizotte #46 of the Pittsburgh Penguins at PPG PAINTS Arena on March 8, 2026 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Joe Sargent/NHLI via Getty Images) | NHLI via Getty Images
We continue our PensBurgh over/under series this week with a look at some of the Pittsburgh Penguins depth players and what they might be capable of this season.
Among the many surprises the Penguins had in 2025-26 was the emergence of their fourth line, specifically as it related to Blake Lizotte and Connor Dewar. Both players played well enough to earn long-term contract extensions with the team, that are not only reasonable salary cap numbers, but also appropriate term lengths that should not make them liabilities long-term.
Here is a quick look at the other over/unders we have looked at so far:
Let’s get into today’s players and potential numbers.
Blake Lizotte: Over/under 1.5 shorthanded goals
Lizotte has been one of the Penguins’ top penalty killers since arriving in Pittsburgh, and has also had a knack throughout his career of producing offense on the penalty kill. Entering the 2026-27 season he has seven shorthanded goals in 434 career games, and has scored at least one in five of his seven full seasons in the league. That includes each of the past three seasons where he has accounted for four of them despite playing in only 176 games.
Over that time period 132 forward have logged at least 250 minutes of shorthanded ice-time, with Lizotte’s 0.75 goals per 60 minutes ranking 24th among that group, while also producing 0.48 individual expected goals per 60 minutes in that time. He gets his chances, and he creates some opportunities.
Had he not missed so much time over those three years it is not a stretch to think that he could have potted at least one or two more.
With Noel Accairi now playing in Philadelphia, it seems logical to assume that Lizotte’s PK role will take on even more importance, and if he can manage to stay on the ice you have to figure he is going to get some opportunities.
Will it be enough, and will he be dangerous enough to score two shorthanded goals this season?
Connor Dewar: Over/under 12.5 goals
When the Penguins traded a fifth-round pick at the 2024-25 NHL Trade Deadline to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Dewar and defenseman Connor Timmins it did not really register much for me. It just seemed like a, “okay, that happened,” type of move, and perhaps something to just fill out a roster for the rest of the season and give them some options for the 2025-26 season.
It has turned out to be a sneaky win for Kyle Dubas.
Dewar has become an extremely effective fourth-liner.
They flipped Timmins and organizational depth piece Isaac Belliveau to Buffalo for defenseman Connor Clifton and, more importantly, a second-round pick in 2025 that turned out to be defenseman Peyton Kettles, who is now one of the organization’s top prospects. Pretty strong value for a fifth-round pick and AHL roster fodder.
Since arriving in Pittsburgh, Dewar has scored 18 goals in 95 regular season games, while also adding two goals in six playoff games. Those 20 goals in 101 total games round out to an 82-game average of 16.2 goals. That’s closer to third-line production than fourth-line production.
That jump in goals has come with a spike in shooting percentage, going up 13.1 percent with the Penguins after being just 8.0 percent during his time with the Maple Leafs and Minnesota Wild. Had he shot at 8 percent over those two seasons with the Penguins his 20 goals would have gone down to about 12 goals. That would average out to 10 goals per 82 games played, which is probably more in line with what you would expect from a fourth-line depth player whose focus is more on defense than goal-scoring.
Is he simply a better player now in Pittsburgh with more opportunity?
Will the two extra games in the regular season help him get a little more shot volume?
Will all of that add up into more than 12.5 goals for the season?
Justin Brazeau: Over/under 41.5 games played with the Penguins
In the first part of the 2025-26 season Brazeau was one of the Penguins’ biggest surprises. He scored 12 goals in his first 24 games through the end of December, and rapidly emerged as a steal of a free agent signing at just $1.5 million per season. He brought size, physical play, and a surprising scoring touch to the lineup, while also displaying some shockingly good hands for a player of his size. He has always been a late-bloomer at every level he played at, and it seemed to be happening again for the Penguins.
But he cooled off considerably in the second half of the season, scoring just five goals over his last 40 games of the regular season.
Injuries no doubt played a role in that, but you also had to expect some sort of a regression. It happened.
Here is the problem I see for him this season: Where, exactly, does he fit in the lineup on a regular basis? The Penguins have 16 or 17 NHL-caliber forwards right now at a minimum, including the proven top-six veterans (Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Bryan Rust, Rickard Rakell), the other depth players (Lizotte and Dewar), a lot of younger/new players that figure to be regulars in the lineup (Egor Chinakhov, Nicholas Robertson, Ben Kindel) and a lot of younger players that will be competing for games and playing time (Ville Koivunen, Rutger McGroarty, Elmer Soderblom, Hendrix Lapierre, Avery Hayes). Including Brazeau, that is 16 forwards. Only 12 forwards are going to dress. Is Brazeau one of the best 12 forwards? Is there another trade to be made to open up a roster spot? You figure some of those younger players are going to end up in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton at the start. Could Brazeau himself be a potential trade piece given the roster and the fact he is in the last year of his contract and an unrestricted free agent after this season?
I like Brazeau as a player. I like what he brings and potentially brings. There will also inevitably be injuries and some of the younger players starting in the American Hockey League, all of which will create some sort of a roster opening for Brazeau at times. But I am just having a hard time seeing where he fits at the moment.
Sutter The Elder vs. Turgeon The Elder, in a different time. | Getty Images
Another good morning (Rick!), afternoon or evening from our quiet summer where the Islanders added Matias Maccelli and subtracted Anders Lee, leaving us to view the return from season-ending injuries of Alex Romanov and Kyle Palmieri as the proverbial “like a new signing.”
Islanders & Isles-Adjacent News
Reminder to expressly agree to share your personal data to vote in the Islanders’ 3rd-jersey poll. [Isles]
Here is a very brief medley of Islanders players reacting to jersey designs. Good to see Romanov proof of life. [Isles]
And former Newsday Fisherman-era beatwriter Alan Hahn of course has thoughts on the Fisherman being in the running. [Newsday]
Brock Nelson is back in Da Beauty League, reflects on a crazy season of Olympic gold while falling short of Cup dreams with Colorado. He turns 35 in October — when did our little Reverend become an ol’ man?!? — but probably will continue to improve or at least age like fine wine. [NHL]
The Islanders will face the Hurricanes in Whalers unis this season. (The picture at the top of this post is from a bygone era, that’s Duane Sutter battling Sylvain Turgeon.) [THN]
Elsewhere
Twelve under-the-radar acquisitions from this summer (including Jordan Kyrou and Mavrik [sic] Bourque, who weren’t exactly under the radar, but whatever). [Sportsnet]
A 32-in-32 look at the Kings, who are Peter Laviolette’s seventh team. Dude is one team away from coaching a quarter of the 32-franchise league. [NHL]
Carey Price reflects on life and the Canadiens as he prepares to enter the Hall of Fame as the Canadiens’ all-time leader in goalie games played and victories. [NHL]
Seth Jarvis brought the Stanley Cup to Winnipeg, which is something that…oh no need to fill in any cruel punch lines. [NHL]
For the Pittsburgh Penguins, there are several players as part of the Jake Guentzel trade tree who are in a "wait and see" stage to determine whether that trade will end up panning out for the organization.
But they are about to take a loss on at least one of the pieces of that deal.
On Aug. 15, select NCAA players set to graduate who are in their fourth season of NCAA eligibility can become unrestricted free agents. According to Puckpedia, if a player is eligible, they must complete the necessary paperwork to indicate they're no longer a college student and submit it to the NHL's Central Registry by the 15th in order to become a draft-related free agent.
And at the top of the list is Penguins' prospect Cruz Lucius.
Lucius, 22, was acquired as part of the trade that sent Jake Guentzel to the Carolina Hurricanes before the 2024 trade deadline. He played two seasons at the University of Wisconsin before transferring to Arizona State University for his past two collegiate seasons. He had a breakout campaign in 2025-26, registering 15 goals and 46 points in 36 games, which was good enough for 11th overall in NCAA scoring.
Unfortunately for the Penguins, Lucius has already informed the team that he does not plan to sign with them for "personal reasons," meaning he is eligible to become an unrestricted free agent on the 15th so long as he completes the necessary paperwork. Had he opted to remain with Pittsburgh and sign, he would have joined a relatively crowded pool of forward prospects.
Lucius was brought over from Carolina along with fellow forward prospects Ville Koivunen and Vasily Ponomarev - who is playing in the KHL - as well as NHL forward Michael Bunting and a second-round pick in the 2024 draft that turned into defenseman Harrison Brunicke, arguably Pittsburgh's top prospect. Bunting was then traded to the Nashville Predators in exchange for forward Tommy Novak and defenseman Luke Schenn, who was flipped for a 2027 fourth and a 2026 second-round pick that became Markus Ruck.
Even if the Guentzel trade tree is still growing and still has fruit to bear, the eventual loss of Lucius is a small blow to the Penguins' forward depth as well as their payout from that trade.
Lucius was a fourth-round selection (124th overall) by Carolina in 2022.
The Senators launched a new season of Breakaway on their YouTube channel on Wednesday, and the first episode of Season 7 offered an interesting behind-the-scenes look at the team's war room during the first round of this year's NHL Draft.
The episode's most intriguing material came from a mic'd-up Steve Staios, who revealed several details about Ottawa's draft-night thinking.
One of the biggest revelations was that their 25th overall pick, Jonas Lagerberg Hoen, was ranked nine picks higher (16th overall) on the Sens' internal draft board.
Steve Warne and Gregg Kennedy discuss how GM Steve Staios generally keeps his cards close to his vest.
So they had to be thrilled he was still available when their pick came around.
That being said, it sounds like Staios could have gone either way when it came to choosing between Lagerberg Hoen and Jaxon Cover, the London Knights forward Ottawa eventually selected 32nd overall.
"Okay, I was thinking [we pick] Cover first and then Lagerberg Hoen?" Staios wondered aloud to his scouting staff. "Or [do we think Lagerberg Hoen] won't be there?"
The Senators settled on the skilled Swede at No. 25, and a couple of factors appeared to push them in that direction.
One was obviously their internal ranking and the concern that he wouldn't last to 32. The other was some interesting intel gathered during the pre-draft interview process.
"We talked to some of the top-end Swedish guys in the interview process," Staios told head coach Travis Green. "Stuff like, 'If you can bring a player with you, who would it be?' And this guy's name came up a lot."
That apparently helped reinforce what Ottawa's scouts already thought about Lagerberg Hoen.
Staios was also busy on the phone leading up to the 25th pick, listening to potential trade offers.
At one point, as viewers got to eavesdrop on one of his phone calls, Staios said he was being offered the 33rd and 41st picks for Ottawa's 25th and 72nd selections.
It doesn't take much detective work to figure out that the offer came from new Vancouver Canucks GM Ryan Johnson, whose club owned picks 33 and 41.
Had Staios accepted, the Senators would have held picks 32, 33 and 41 instead of 25, 32 and 72.
He opted to stay put, almost certainly because Ottawa didn't believe Lagerberg Hoen would still be there at No. 32. Considering the Senators had him ranked 16th overall, it's easy to understand why they weren't willing to take that chance.
There was another interesting option involving the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Staios revealed that Pittsburgh had called to offer a deal that included a Penguins roster player, although the min-doc didn't reveal the player's identity.
That leaves plenty of room for speculation on who that might be.
One name that would make some sense is Justin Brazeau. The 6-foot-6, 232-pound winger scored 17 goals and 17 assists last season and has been mentioned in trade speculation.
With the Sens having recently lost the physical presence Brady Tkachuk provided, it's not difficult to imagine the Penguins offering a player like Brazeau. Naturally, the Pens' 39th overall pick or something else would have to be included in such a deal.
Or if there were no picks changing hands, the unnamed roster player might need to be someone like Rickard Rakell or Bryan Rust.
But Staios resisted the various offers and plowed forward with his top picks in the order they were given.
They landed a player they had ranked 16th at No. 25, then still managed to get Cover seven selections later at No. 32.
For fans who enjoy the off-camera mechanics of draft night, it's a fun episode.
It's one thing to hear Gary Bettman announce names at the podium. It's another to hear how close the Senators came to doing something completely different.
By Steve Warne The Hockey News
This article was first published in The Hockey News. For more Sens coverage at The Hockey News, click on one of the Sens headlines below:
Last July, in a courthouse in London, Ontario, five former members of Canada's 2018 World Junior hockey team were cleared of sexual assault charges.
The judge in the case said the complainant's allegations lacked the credibility and reliability needed to justify convictions. As a result, all five players were eventually allowed to resume their NHL careers.
But Hockey Canada found them in breach of their code of conduct and announced on Wednesday that suspensions will remain in place in four of the five cases.
Steve Warne and Gregg Kennedy discuss Jake Sanderson's ranking among top NHL defensemen.
The one exception is former Senator Alex Formenton, who they've reinstated immediately.
Formenton, Carter Hart, Cal Foote, Dillon Dubé and Michael McLeod were all acquitted last July following an eight-week trial.
But the criminal proceedings were separate from Hockey Canada's investigation. That investigation began in 2018 and eventually resulted in a November 2023 report from an independent panel. The five players were formally suspended from all Hockey Canada-sanctioned programs while an appeal of that decision was underway.
That appeal process has now concluded, and the panel confirmed that all five players breached the organization's code of conduct.
But the panel's recommended suspensions vary dramatically.
While Formenton was reinstated, Foote remains suspended until November 2026, Hart until November 2027, Dubé until November 2028, and McLeod has over four years left before reinstatement in November 2030.
In a nutshell, the panel ruled that Formenton breached the Hockey Canada code of conduct, but apparently not to the extent the others did.
Formenton was selected by the Senators in the second round, 47th overall, in the 2017 NHL Draft and developed into one of the fastest players in the organization, if not the league.
His best NHL season came in 2021-22, when he scored 18 goals and 32 points in 79 games at age 22.
But that turned out to be his final season in Ottawa.
Formenton became a restricted free agent in the summer of 2022 and went unsigned by the Senators. He eventually continued his career with HC Ambrì-Piotta in Switzerland before returning home to face charges.
Formenton spent this past season with his Swiss team again, putting up 23 points in 42 games. He's officially an NHL UFA after the Senators officially cut ties with him two months ago.
Wednesday's ruling doesn't mean the NHL or Team Canada will ever come calling again, but the comparative lenience being shown to Formenton does send a message and may fuel some discussions.
By Steve Warne The Hockey News
This article was first published in The Hockey News. For more Sens coverage at The Hockey News, click on one of the Sens headlines below:
BUFFALO, NEW YORK - JUNE 26: (L-R) NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and Liam Ruck, 22nd overall pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins, talk onstage during Day One of the 2026 NHL Draft at KeyBank Center on June 26, 2026 in Buffalo, New York. (Photo by Andrea Cardin/NHLI via Getty Images) | NHLI via Getty Images
The Ottawa Senators produced a behind the scenes bit of content for the 2026 draft. The part around their decision with the 25th overall pick involved the Penguins. Per Ottawa’s GM Steve Staois, the Penguins had called and offered an unidentified roster player in order to get the Sens’ pick.
Ottawa Senators GM Steve Staios says the Penguins made an offer for what appears to have been the 25th overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft:
“No pick offers are good enough just yet, but Pittsburgh's interesting with the roster player.” pic.twitter.com/nITr1CryDp
The clip shows Staios fielding an offer from Vancouver, who were attempting to send the 33rd and 41st overall picks to move up to 25 and get pick 72 back from Ottawa. Staios soon dismissed that among his Sens compadres saying, “no pick offers are good enough yet. But Pittsburgh is interesting with the roster player”.
By the time the ultimate decision had to be made, Ottawa elected to hold tight and draft the 16th best prospect on their board at 25th overall, Swedish winger Jonas Lagerberg-Hoen.
The tidbit about the Pens will lead to intrigue. Staios didn’t mention if Pittsburgh included a pick (like 39th or 54th overall) to bolster their offer or if that unidentified roster player stood as the only piece involved.
The Penguins haven’t been in a huge hurry to trade players away. The didn’t end up moving any roster players on draft night and since that point they’ve only traded away Jack St. Ivany and Parker Wotherspoon, neither of which would be remotely close in value to making a team like Ottawa think long and hard about dealing the 25th pick.
It’s a bit easier to see what Pittsburgh’s end game was. The Pens had just drafted Liam Ruck at 22nd overall and it wasn’t exactly a state secret that the team was eager to add his twin brother Markus to the organization. They ended up not needing a trade, getting Markus at their next pick early in the second round at 39th overall. For their part, the Pens picked a partner in Ottawa who held another pick (32nd overall) in the first round as a potential target that might have been interested in adding a current NHL player with their extra pick early on.
Who exactly the Pens offered is intriguing. One would think that a standalone for Bryan Rust or Rickard Rakell would have been enough for Ottawa to move a late first rounder, especially considering that the Pens’ reported price on both veterans is higher than one late first. By the same token, it makes sense to rule out Egor Chinakhov and Ben Kindel value-wise as nothing that Pittsburgh would offer. Same with trade clauses for obviously Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Erik Karlsson, Kris Letang. Plenty of others on the roster offered up wouldn’t have Ottawa even considering the move.
That leaves a few candidates in the sweet spot as being available but carrying some value, like possibly Tommy Novak or Justin Brazeau as the mystery offer. Possibly even down to near-ready prospects like Harrison Brunicke, Ville Koivunen or Rutger McGroarty, though considering players who finished in the AHL as ‘roster players’ may or may not have been in the cards. Some of those names make more sense than others but seem like the more realistic range of potential offerings.
In the end, the general public will never likely know exactly who the Pens offered up. GM Kyle Dubas runs a tight ship and almost zero details leak out from his side, especially about trades that didn’t end up getting made. General managers float tons of ideas to their counterparts all the time and most the talk amounts to nothing. A Pittsburgh/Ottawa trade for the 25th pick fits in that category of fizzling out before getting across the finish line. The only difference from most talks was that Ottawa used the conversation as part of their multimedia to give a little peak into what went on in their draft room. As a result, they gave a little bit of news to consider what could have been if Staios decided to move forward with the offer from the Pens and just how the team might have been different if he did.
A Montreal Canadiens young star has received some praise.
TheHockeyNews.com has named Ivan Demidov as the NHL's top forward breakout candidate to watch for the 2026-27 season
When looking at what Demidov did during his rookie season with the Canadiens, it is certainly hard not to be excited to see what he can do for the Habs now that he has a full year of experience.
In 82 games last season with the Canadiens, Demidov posted 19 goals, 43 assists, and 62 points. These were very impressive numbers from the Habs rookie, but the 2024 fifth-overall pick should only get better as he continues to gain more experience.
If Demidov can take another step forward, it would only make the Canadiens a more difficult team for opponents to go up against. He has all the tools to become a superstar in the NHL, and it will be interesting to see if he takes another big step to becoming that in 2026-27 from here.
The possibility of Demidov being an 80-point player this upcoming campaign for the Canadiens should not be ruled out. He has the offensive potential to do so.
It's officially another season, another prospects ranking for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
In years past, this has been a bit easier of an exercise, as there used to be a more clear-cut line between prospects with NHL upside and longshots. However, because of the work that general manager and president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas and his staff have put in during the last several years, the line is blurring a whole lot more - and there is a substantially higher volume of talent in the system.
This time around, making a top-20 list was challenging. So, a few criteria were put into place: To make our list, prospects must be under the age of 26 and have played less than 50 NHL games. This excludes names such as Ben Kindel, Filip Hallander, Oliver Okuliar, and Alexander Alexeyev.
Defenseman Finn Harding came in at No. 13, as his rapid progression after being a seventh-round pick is impressive and a developmental success story. We shift back to the forward front for No. 12 to shed more light on a guy who plays with an edge, a skillset, and a contagious energy that may just allow him to keep elevating his ceiling at the NHL level.
No. 12: RW Avery Hayes
Fist career shot, first career goal for Avery Hayes. Incredible moment for him 🏒 pic.twitter.com/iR9jSS62IN
There are very few prospects in the Penguins' organization as well-liked and well-respected as Avery Hayes, and it's certainly for good reason.
The undrafted 23-year-old forward certainly made a big impression on the big club when he made his NHL debut against the Buffalo Sabres on Feb. 5, scoring two goals, with the first coming from an earned opportunity on his first NHL shot. Hayes played in 16 NHL games during the team's most important stretch of the season between late-February and early April, putting up five goals and showing signs of being an effective bottom-six player with offensive upside.
And that's not even accounting for the fabulous AHL season he had, putting up 24 goals and 39 points in 42 games for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (WBS). He went a bit quiet during the Calder Cup Playoffs with just three goals and six points through 15 games, but his presence was still noticeable.
Hayes exudes a certain level of energy and confidence that seems to be contagious among his peers. He plays with an edge and sticks up for teammates, he works his tail off shift after shift, and he doesn't shy away from playing with the puck on his stick.
He's also as good as anyone in the system at creating something out of nothing.
The 5-foot-10, 180-pound right wing excels at "stickhandling in a phone booth," if you will, possessing the ability to make plays in tight spaces and force plays that don't even look like they're there. He's quick, he's agile, he's an excellent forechecker, he's able to create separation with his speed, he's good around the net, he is effective on the PK and the PP, and he has a pretty nice shot to go along with all of that.
GOAL. Avery Hayes makes it 3-0 #WBSPens late in the 2nd period.
Harrison Brunicke to Rutger McGroarty and across to Hayes for #85's team-leading 3rd of the playoffs on more brilliant puck movement on the power play.@InsideAHLHockeypic.twitter.com/TMV4DVnUp5
Hayes's journey to the NHL was certainly an unconventional one, as he went straight from playing with the Peterborough Petes of the OHL in 2022-23 to an AHL PTO then a contract with WBS. His biggest and best attribute is his work ethic, which is on display every single night in various different manners, whether that's beating opponents to loose pucks, forcing his will around the net-front, or playing with some snarl to get under his opponent's skin and rally his team.
In some ways, Hayes is a bit remniscent of veteran forward Bryan Rust, who - even if drafted, unlike Hayes - started out the first seasons of his NHL career as a fourth-liner but worked his way up the lineup through persistance and the high-energy, forecheck-heavy speed game he plays.
So, looking at it that way, it kind of makes sense why he's garnered the respect and attention of the Penguins' development staff, as his path and his work ethic set an example for others to follow.
"Avery Hayes is an incredible kid. I could talk all day about him," Penguins' director of player development Tom Kostopoulos said. "The way our organization is set up to find these players, work with them, develop them, coach them, give them opportunity, Avery Hayes is a fantastic example.
"Everyone in our organization was super happy to see [him] jump into the lineup in Buffalo and score two goals. From the way his career started and what he's done with it so far, there's a lot more for him ahead."
Hayes figures to be a candidate to make the opening night NHL roster, even with an uphill climb ahead due to the crowded forward pool expected at training camp. His game is one that should translate pretty well to the NHL level, and his ceiling once he establishes himself as an NHL player is a bit of an exciting unknown. That "unknown" is both what has him just outside the top-10 on this list and what makes him such an intriguing upside prospect.
Given his history, he may just keep raising that ceiling. If any prospect in the organization is going to take a Rust-like path and quite literally get better and more productive at the NHL level with every passing year, it's Hayes. He has the tools, the fight, and the mindset to do it, so it will be interesting to see how soon he can establish himself as a permanent fixture in the Penguins' lineup.
