It was held on Thursday at Saldon Arena in Barrie, Ontario, home of the Ontario Hockey League’s Barrie Colts, and hosted by Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall.
Ekblad, who captained the Colts during his time in the OHL before being drafted first overall by the Panthers in 2014, spoke about what the event meant to him.
“It’s amazing, it’s nostalgic,” Ekblad said to CTV News. “Skating on this ice and snapping it around in warm-ups was really cool. I see a lot of familiar faces, fans from back in the day, so nostalgic would be the word I use for it.”
Ekblad was the captain of Team Denim while another former Colt legend, John Tavares, was captain of Team Plaid.
Every year, the Barn Burner raises money to support local charities and community programs throughout the Barrie area, including the Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre Foundation, the John Tavares Foundation, PIE Education and several others.
“It’s an extremely important cause, I’m really happy to be here,” Ekblad said. “They’re doing great things in the community and I’m just happy to be a part of it.”
Photo caption: Mar 16, 2023; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Florida Panthers defenseman AaronEkblad(5) celebrates a goal with center SamBennett(9) in the second period against the Montreal Canadiens at FLA Live Arena. (Jim Rassol-USA TODAY Sports)
The Philadelphia Flyers have undertaken a major youth movement on their NHL roster in recent seasons, and while another young prospect had a legitimate chance to continue that trend, it'll have to wait for at least one more year.
On Monday morning, the Flyers announced that 2024 second-round pick Jack Berglund, who played for the AHL Lehigh Valley Phantoms at the end of last season on a tryout basis, has been loaned back to his SHL club, Farjestad BK, for the 2026-27 season.
Berglund, 20, has impressed the Flyers with the strides he's made since being drafted 51st overall in 2024, establishing himself as an SHL regular and dominating on the international junior stage for Sweden.
Last season, the 6-foot-4 power forward appeared in 40 games for Farjestad, scoring seven goals, five assists, and 12 points before adding another three assists in seven postseason contests.
During the U20 World Junior Championship, Berglund dropped a monster three-goal, seven-assist, 10-point stat line in just seven games en route to a gold medal, and finished his season with nine goals, 13 assists, and 22 points in 17 total games for Sweden's U20s.
The 20-year-old prospect was in attendance for the Flyers' regular season game against the Carolina Hurricanes, when the Flyers clinched their playoff berth with a 3-2 shootout win.
During the second intermission, we had the chance to catch up briefly, and Berglund said that he, the Flyers, and his camp would discuss the plan for the season during the summer.
Four months later, and only one month before the start of training camp and the NHL preseason, that decision between the two sides has been made, with Berglund putting a potential NHL push aside for one more season while also getting the opportunity to play a premier role for one of the SHL's biggest clubs.
With his 12 points in 40 games for Farjestad last season, Berglund ranked fourth in the SHL in points from D+2 skaters, trailing only San Jose's Leo Sahlin Wallenius (13), the undrafted Valter Lindberg (17), and Anaheim's Lucas Pettersson (20).
Berglund's seven goals, however, slotted him behind only Pettersson (10).
The Flyers and Berglund each have certainty now heading into the new season, and a productive campaign on the player's part will position him nicely for an NHL roster spot in 2027.
One of the first major moves that now-former Detroit Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman made shortly after his hiring in 2019 was to select defenseman Moritz Seider with the sixth overall pick in that summer's NHL Draft.
The move, which startled many in hockey circles, has turned out to be one of Yzerman's most meaningful decisions.
Not only has Seider blossomed into Detroit's top defenseman, but he also recently garnered consideration for both the Hart Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player during the regular season, along with the Norris Trophy, awarded annually to the League's top blue liner.
Not surprisingly, Seider was included in a recent ranking by NHL.com of the top 20 players at his position currently suiting up, coming in at No. 9 overall.
Mortiz Seider (@DetroitRedWings) is back on the Top 20 Defensemen Right Now list!
This past season, Seider set personal highs with 10 goals and 50 assists for 60 points while posting a plus-15 rating.
He also averaged a team-leading 25:39 of ice time per game while playing in all 82 contests; he's yet to miss a single game in his career, which began in the 2021-22 season.
Seider, who won the Calder Trophy as the NHL's best rookie that season, routinely garners high praise from head coach Todd McLellan for his durability and brute effectiveness on the ice.
“I really think he’s a diesel engine,” McLellan said of Seider in January. “He just never turns off, and he just keeps going. His stamina is remarkable.”
“His overall presence on the ice, both offensively and defensively, I think he’s taking strides,” McLellan said. “His … mistakes are being minimized.”
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Months have flown by since New York Rangers’ president and general manager Chris Drury released a letter to the public outlining the team’s plan to “retool” the roster.
Since then, the Rangers have made a flurry of moves, being one of the most active teams in the NHL on the trade market.
Here are all of the Rangers’ trades and signings since Drury’s Jan. 16 letter was released:
Trades:
Jan. 26: Carson Soucy trades to New York Islanders in exchange for 2026 third-round pick
Feb. 5: Artemi Panarin Traded To Los Angeles Kings in exchange for Liam Greentree and a 2026 conditional third-round pick
Mar. 6: Sam Carrick traded to Buffalo Sabres in exchange for a 2026 third-round pick and 2026 sixth-round pick
Mar. 6: Brennan Othmann traded to the Calgary Flames in exchange for Jacob Battaglia.
Jun. 26: Brett Berard traded to Montreal Canadiens in exchange for William Trudeau.
Jun. 26: Rangers acquire Pavel Dorofeyev from Vegas Golden Knights in exchange for a 2026 first-round pick, 2026 third-round pick and a conditional 2028 first-round pick
Jun. 27: Adam Edström traded to Nashville Predators in exchange for Massimo Rizzo and a 2026 sixth-round pick.
Jul. 1: Rangers acquire Joonas Korpisalo from Bruins in exchange for Kalle Vaisanen and a 2028 fourth-round pick
Jul. 1: Vincent Trocheck traded to Utah mammoth in exchange for Sean Durzi, Cole Beaudoin, and a 2027 third-round pick
Jul. 1: Will Borgen traded to Bruins in exchange for a 2028 third-round pick
Jul. 1: Rangers acquire Marcus Pettersson from Vancouver Canucks in exchange for a 2030 top-ten protected first-round pick
Signings:
Jan. 31: Rangers claim Vincent Iorio off of waivers from San Jose Sharks
Feb. 27: Rangers claim Tye Kartye off of waivers from Seattle Kraken
Jul. 1: Rangers sign Oliver Bjorkstrand to one-year, $1.25 million contract
Jul 1: Rangers sign Joe Veleno to one-year, $1.2 million contract
The topic of who the best defensemen in the NHL have been a continuous argument, but it has really taken off these past couple of seasons with the amount of talent there is now. Is it the offense, the defense, or is it a mix of both that qualifies them as the best in the league?
Well, the NHL Network has put together a list ranking the top 20 defensemen in the NHL right now, as they state in their article, “Whether it's breaking up a big play, setting up a goal, or scoring on the power play, some defensemen can do it all. NHL Network producers and analysts chose the top 20 defensemen in the League right now,”.
To no surprise, or to other teams' surprise, the NHL Network and its producers and analysts have named Cale Makar as the best defenseman in the NHL right now, stating,
“Makar was third among NHL defensemen with 79 points (20 goals, 59 assists) in 75 games, and had a plus-40 even-strength goal differential that was third among defensemen behind Avalanche teammates Sam Malinski (plus-44) and Josh Manson (plus-41). The 27-year-old finished second in voting for the Norris Trophy, the sixth straight season he's been a finalist, including wins in 2022 and 2025; he joined Bobby Orr (seven times) as the only players to be a Norris finalist at least six times in his first seven seasons. Makar also became the 11th defenseman in NHL history to score 20 goals in three straight seasons, the first to do it since Phil Housley (six straight) and Al MacInnis in 1992. Makar had a secondary assist on March 28 against the Winnipeg Jets to become the 12th active defenseman with 500 points. It was his 467th game, the fourth-fewest in NHL history for a defenseman to reach 500 points, after Bobby Orr (396), Paul Coffey (422), and Denis Potvin (465).”
Makar finished ahead of Quinn Hughes (2), recent Norris Trophy winner Zack Werenski (3), Rasmus Dahlin (4), and Miro Heiskanen (5) in the list. Even in a “down” season that didn’t see him record similar stats to his Norris Trophy-winning season in 2024-25, he still managed to finish with 20 goals and 59 assists for 79 points, ranking him third in points, sixth in goals, and tied for fourth in assists. A big factor in that point and goal reduction was the lack of power play success, with him scoring the fewest power play goals (4) since his rookie (2019-20) and sophomore season (2020-21).
Though he did finish with 25 power-play assists, more than last season but not as high as the 2023-24 season, where he finished with 32. Considering he still finished with 29 power-play points when the power play, for the majority of the season, was not up to what it should be with that amount of talent on the team, it's safe to say there were a lot of points left on the table.
Though Makar wasn’t the only Avalanche to make the top 20 list, his partner Devon Toews also made the list, as he was ranked 20th.
“Toews had 24 points (three goals, 21 assists) in 68 regular-season games and was a dependable top-pair partner for Cale Makar. He had a plus-38 even-strength goal differential that was tied for fourth among NHL defensemen while averaging 18:33 of ice time per game at even strength. He was just as good during the Stanley Cup Playoffs, leading Avalanche defensemen with 11 points (two goals, nine assists) in 13 games, and leading all Colorado players with an average ice time of 25:39 per game. He was just as good defensively, with a plus-6 even-strength goal differential. Toews also helped Team Canada win the silver medal at the 2026 Winter Olympics with three points (one goal, two assists) in 19:57 of ice time in six games, and led his team with a plus-9 rating in the tournament.”
This might be even more controversial for many, just for the names Toews has left on the board. Taking the place of guys like Jacob Chychrun, Erik Karlsson, or even Mikahil Sergachev. Though Toews has been a backbone to this team ever since he signed, he was put into a position where he wasn’t forced to carry the offense alone, but is a staple of their defensive game. His chemistry with Makar has only gotten better every season they've been together.
Despite arguably having his worst season with the Avalanche, both offensively and defensively, his history with the team and what he has done on both ends of the ice prove he should be on this list.
Perhaps Logan Stanley fumbled the bag this summer.
The towering defenceman had chances to sign early in free agency and passed, betting on something better, something along the lines of $4 million AAV. That bet hasn't paid off. Stanley is still unsigned as of August 10th, now the best defenceman left on the board for whatever that title is worth (not much). Whoever signs him now will pay him less, for less term, than what he could've gotten in July.
Stanley is coming off his best all-around season, despite a trade from Winnipeg to Buffalo that he didn't want with Luke Schenn, in exchange for forward Isak Rosén, defenseman Jacob Bryson, a 2027 second-round draft pick, and a conditional 2026 fourth-round draft pick. Didn't matter to Buffalo, though, who scratched him multiple times during their playoff run and are now not interested in re-signing him. The Jets, meanwhile, signed Mario Ferraro, closing the door on a reunion there too.
Earlier this summer, a four-year deal near a $4 million AAV looked realistic. The salary cap is increasing, and a massive 6'7" physical defenceman whose game relies on imposing reach, heavy physical play, a booming long-range shot, and a simple defensive style is desirable among many teams. Now, with training camps closing in and cap space drying up around the league, Stanley's looking at one or two years, somewhere around $2 million and less if the season starts and he remains unsigned.
The same thing happened to Jack Roslovic before he signed with the Edmonton Oilers. He and his agent came into the offseason wanting more than what other teams were willing to pay. Following his signing early in the season, Stan Bowman spoke to the media between periods and relayed that the Oilers had originally offered him $2 million AAV in the summer, and they declined, opting to seek more elsewhere. Roslovic later signed in Edmonton for 1 year with a $1 million AAV.
Stanley runs the risk of running into the same situation.
Stanley has been linked to Philadelphia, Anaheim, San Jose and Pittsburgh, with the Penguins the current favourite and the Ducks close behind. Both teams need blueline depth, and Stanley's physical, in-your-face style fits what they're missing. He's never been shy about playing in the dirty areas.
Perhaps Edmonton should be thrown into the mix, even if it's a longer shot than the four teams above. The Oilers are sitting on roughly $4.725 million in projected cap space with 46 players already under contract. That's tight, but not nothing, especially for a short-term deal in Stanley's new price range. Edmonton has some size on the backend, but a replacement piece, one who's a physical, low-cost rental who can eat minutes in a bottom pairing, is the depth that the Oilers have been looking for. It would take some maneuvering to make the money work, and Stan Bowman hasn't shown much interest in one-year rental defencemen this summer. But if Stanley's market keeps collapsing and his price tag drops into the low twos, it's not a total reach to see Edmonton at least make a call.
For now, Stanley waits. Training camps are almost here, and the longer this drags, the worse his leverage gets.
The Columbus Blue Jackets' Zach Werenski is really good and has been for years. Sadly, it took years for the rest of the league to take notice, though. In the last two seasons, Werenski has shown that he is arguably the top defenseman, as shown by the Norris Trophy he earned last season.
NHL Network recently released its "Top 20 Defensemen Right Now" list, and to no one's surprise, Zach Werenski is very high on the list.
Werenski comes in at #3 on the list, with only Cale Makar and Quinn Hughes ahead of him.
"Werenski was voted the Norris Trophy winner as the best defenseman in the League last season, after he led the Blue Jackets and was second among NHL defensemen, with 81 points (22 goals, 59 assists) in 75 games. That was one off of the NHL career-best 82 points he had in 2024-25, making him the ninth defenseman in NHL history to have consecutive 80-point seasons. His 59 assists matched the single-season Blue Jackets record, set by Artemi Panarin in 2018-19 and equaled by Werenski in 2024-25, and his 22 goals were one off the mark for a Blue Jackets defenseman, which he had set with 23 goals in 2024-25. The 29-year-old had a plus-9 even-strength goal differential while finishing third in the NHL with an average even-strength ice time of 22:21. Werenski also helped Team USA win the gold medal at the 2026 Winter Olympics. He had six points (one goal, five assists) in six games, including the primary assist on Jack Hughes' overtime goal in the 2-1 win against Team Canada in the championship game."
The rest of the top-5 is Rasmus Dahlin and Miro Heiskanen.
There is some uncertainty surrounding Werenski with the drama that took place this summer, and many wonder if it will affect his performance next season as a member of the CBJ. Werenski is a pro, so don't expect him to just glide along next season waiting for a trade to happen.
Expect more stellar play from Zach Werenski.
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Change can be hard to come by in the NHL. The cliche of the “200 hockey men” way of thinking is a cliche for a reason. The NHL is an old boys club, where men who are already connected to the inner circle in one way or another have a massive advantage over everyone else. Not only this, but this insular group also has a band of media allies eager to do their bidding and serve as mouthpieces and shields for them, all to get a little access. This media version of the old boys club has some degree of separation from the group that is actually inside the league, but they are, for the most part, hand-in-glove with one another. Granted this is also the case in many, many industries across the world, but at least as far as sports go, the NHL is among the worst in this regard.
The sons of former NHLers are making it to the league at a crazy rate. The same 35-40 men keep getting all the head coaching jobs. Front offices keep getting staffed with the same candidates too, although I do think there is a little more variety in GM hirings than head coach hirings. The hockey media keeps churning out new, interesting people every year, but the newbies are mostly kept to the fringes unless they toe the company line, so to speak. It’s all so incestuous, and while other sports are guilty of this to a certain degree as I mentioned, the NHL really does feel like they’re behind the rest of them.
But with the Carolina Hurricanes finally getting over the hump and winning their elusive championship in the Rod Brind’Amour era, a question has started to bounce around in my head: Are we, at long last, about to see the Moneyball revolution in the NHL that we have seen in other sports?
The Moneyball Revolution?
I suppose the first thing I should do is define what I mean by the “Moneyball revolution”. For those who don’t follow baseball, Moneyball is a reference to Michael Lewis’ 2003 book, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game. The book is about the 2002 Oakland Athletics, and more specifically, their general manager, Billy Beane. Oakland was one of the lowest-revenue teams in MLB back then, and with franchises like the Yankees and Red Sox buying all the best players, including Oakland’s own Jason Giambi and Johnny Damon, Beane and the A’s had to get creative in order to stay competitive. By moving away from traditional baseball thinking and embracing the sabermetrics pioneered by people such as Bill James, Beane and the Athletics were able to find value in places where nobody else in baseball was looking, helping them to yet another monster season in 2002, even if it did end disappointingly in the ALDS.
Granted, while the focus on the market inefficiency of on-base percentage and the diamonds in the rough such as Scott Hatteberg certainly helped, the team was also loaded with big time stars. You wouldn’t know it from watching the movie adaptation of the book, but the A’s also employed these guys named Barry Zito, Mark Mulder, and Tim Hudson back then. Not to mention Miguel Tejada and Eric Chavez. Those guys were pretty good! But I’m getting off on a tangent here. The point is, while the 2002 A’s had their homegrown stars, it was the Moneyball ethos that helped them build depth and give them those all-important edges that can push a team over the top.
As mentioned, those 2002 A’s didn’t win it all, but they perhaps did something even more important: they changed the game. In the wake of Oakland’s embrace of Moneyball, the rest of MLB started to embrace analytics. Now, almost a quarter century later, Major League Baseball is completely unrecognizable from how it was when Beane was signing the Hattebergs of the world. Nowadays, the standard operating procedure for MLB front offices is to hire analytics-minded GMs, build a massive analytics department, and incorporate advanced stats into every decision. Depending on who you talk to, this isn’t necessarily a good thing. But whether it’s good or bad is almost besides the point. The real point is that Moneyball changed the game forever.
Look around MLB today, and you would be hard pressed to find a general manager/president of baseball operations who was a former player or manager. It’s mostly longtime scouts with a specialty in analytics, or Ivy League guys with degrees in data science or something similar. In fact, one of the very few former player GMs, the Texas Rangers’ Chris Young, is a Princeton grad himself. As far as I can tell, only Buster Posey and Jerry Dipoto are leading men in an MLB front office that are former players without an accompanying high-level education. For better or worse, baseball is run by the nerds these days.
Eric Tulsky, Sunny Mehta, And The Value Of Iconoclasm
Thanks to Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics, Major League Baseball has had it’s Moneyball revolution. But while analytics has certainly become more prominent in the NHL in recent years, it is still a far cry from what baseball has accomplished in this regard. Do that same test of NHL GMs/POHOs, and you will find that the vast majority of the league’s top decision makers were former players, even if only briefly. And that doesn’t even count legacy cases (or nepo-babies, depending on how cynical you’re feeling) such as Stan Bowman or Chris Patrick. Once again, the NHL is very insular and obsessed with not rocking the boat.
Despite this, the reason I wonder if the NHL is on the edge of an analytics upheaval is pretty simple: the recent 1-2 punch of Eric Tulsky winning the Stanley Cup, and our New Jersey Devils hiring Sunny Mehta as their own general manager.
We’ll start with Carolina. Tulsky’s origin story from blogger to GM is a familiar one at this point, so I won’t get into the finer details here. The broad strokes are that he is a brilliant man with degrees in chemistry and physics from Harvard University, who worked in nanotechnology for a decade, and then entered the world of hockey through writing about the NHL for SB Nation. He parlayed those credentials into part-time consulting/analyst work for a few NHL clubs, and then eventually a full-time role with the Carolina Hurricanes. While in Raleigh, he worked his way up from the analytics department to assistant GM to, finally, general manager in the summer of 2024. Two years later, he became the man who brought the Cup back to North Carolina.
Tulsky’s existence is almost a direct affront to the 200 hockey men that uphold NHL orthodoxy. I know I sound like a broken record, but it really does bear a lot of repeating: these men do NOT like outsiders coming in and changing things. The 200 hockey men are very, very, VERY concerned with making sure nobody rocks the boat, lest there be significant consequences. And yet, Tulsky was able to break through the firewall and reach the NHL mountaintop. Obviously there have been front offices in recent years that have relied significantly on analytics to build championship rosters, but they were usually fronted by much more traditional hockey men. Think Colorado with Joe Sakic. But Tulsky is the first person that truly embodies the Moneyball spirit to be the leading figure of a club that won the last game of their season in June.
And now, as Tulsky hoists the Cup, in comes Sunny Mehta. A native son of New Jersey, Mehta is cut from the same cloth as Tulsky as a brilliant outsider of sorts. Much like Tulsky, I won’t go deep into Mehta’s biography here since everyone is probably familiar with it. Suffice to say, Mehta’s unique path from musician to poker player to hockey analytics firebrand has landed him the top job with his childhood team, and with his hiring comes a heavy emphasis on analytics. Once again, this does not mean the New Jersey Devils organization was devoid of any sort of analytics prior to Mehta’s arrival. In fact, the franchise employs one of the bigger analytics departments in the league, running seven employees deep with Matt Cane at the top as Vice President, Hockey Analytics and Strategy according to the Devils front office directory.
That being said, that analytics department used to be led by Tom Fitzgerald, who was the epitome of the stale, cowardly hockey mind who was scared of taking even the tiniest risk in his later years as Devils GM. I’m not going to say that Fitzgerald made zero good moves, because that would be unfair and inaccurate. I’m also not going to say that he took zero risks either, because that also wouldn’t be true. But after the team’s magical 2022-23 season, Fitzgerald definitely became way more risk-averse. He was a conformist who was already inclined to lean into his hockey man instincts, and after the failures of 2023-24, he fully retreated into the safe, bland, traditional way of doing things in his last few seasons at the helm. The Devils might have had a relatively large analytics department, but with Fitzgerald running things, it was sort of like giving a trained jiu jitsu fighter a sniper rifle and expecting him to know how to use it.
By the end, Devils fans, myself included, were so unbelievably sick of Fitzgerald’s complete aversion to doing anything. We were desperate for change, and tons of us wanted the Devils to bring Mehta home. To be fair, it wasn’t just because he was an analytics guy. No, it was mostly because Mehta proved that his data-based approach was extremely effective in Florida, where he helped lead the Panthers to back-t0-back championships as Bill Zito’s assistant general manager. And it wasn’t just Devils fans who wanted him. Every team that was in the market for a new GM this offseason seemed to have Mehta at or near the top of their wish list. I seem to recall the Toronto Maple Leafs fanbase especially clamoring for him before he signed on with the Devils. Leafs fans were in a very similar situation as Devils fans, having suffered through the unbelievably stale, traditional tenure of Brad Treliving. They wanted a fresh mind with new ideas. They wanted winning analytics. They wanted Mehta.
So now Mehta has secured the top job in New Jersey. And before his team has played a single game with him at the wheel, he’s already shown a willingness to spit in the eye of the traditional way of doing things. Offer sheets are very rare in the NHL. We have seen a slight uptick in offer sheets in recent years, such as the Sebastian Aho-Jesperi Kotkaniemi saga from a few years back, and the dual St. Louis Blues offer sheets of 2024 for Dylan Hollaway and Philip Broberg. But by and large, they are still an underutilized tool, largely because traditional hockey lifers view them as some sort of significant breach of decorum. But Mehta didn’t care one bit about that, signing Utah’s Barrett Hayton to an offer sheet after Bill Armstrong backed out of a trade that would’ve sent Hayton to New Jersey at the draft. To be fair, this offer sheet failed, and even if it didn’t, it’s not like this alone would be proof that Mehta is doing a great job. But it’s just so refreshing to see a GM think outside the box while seeming to lean on his data to make smart player acquisition moves. Mehta didn’t care that there was decorum to uphold or that he was the new kid on the block. He came in and immediately tried to improve his club by whatever means necessary.
But of course, this was a slap in the face to the old ways of doing things. And as a result, a couple of those 200 hockey men found it necessary to wag their fingers at Mehta:
Meanwhile, those same media insiders laughed at Tulsky and the Hurricanes for shipping Mikko Rantanen out just a handful of games after they traded for him from the Colorado Avalanche during the 2024-25 season. But Tulsky didn’t care what the stuffy old hockey media thought, he did what was best for his team. Once he learned that he wouldn’t be able to sign Rantanen long-term, Tulsky pivoted, took the PR hit, and acquired a ton of draft capital and a player in Logan Stankoven that became absolutely indispensable to the Hurricanes run to a championship this spring.
This is the value of being an iconoclast. Like Beane with on-base percentage, Tulsky and Mehta are looking for market inefficiencies wherever they can find them, without worrying about decorum or tradition or being mocked by those in and around the game. Mind you, being different just for the sake of being different is not a great approach. There’s a difference between being an effective iconoclast and a shallow contrarian. It’s not enough to go against tradition, you have to actually have a plan. Tulsky did, and his reward was 16 playoff victories in 2026. Despite being brand new to the job, I feel confident in saying that Mehta has a solid plan. By his own admission, the roster still needs some work. But The Rock wasn’t built in a day after all, and I have faith that Mehta can play the long game well.
Time Will Tell
For as hostile as the NHL can be to change, the NHL is also a copycat league. This paradoxically makes the league one filled with people who don’t want anything to change, yet who constantly change some things in order to chase the latest winning trend. It happens with styles of play, it happens with which player archetypes are valued, and it happens with front office structure.
Before Eric Tulsky was promoted to GM in Carolina, there was another sort of shift taking place in front offices: the rise of the former agents. Entering this upcoming season, you could argue that the two best general managers in the league are Bill Zito and Kent Hughes, two former player agents. In Edmonton, Jeff Jackson, another former agent, is the CEO and President of Hockey Operations. This isn’t anywhere close to the level of upheaval as the arrival of the analytics nerds, as agents occupy some of the same space in the inner circle as those 200 hockey men. But it’s at least a little different than normal.
So the NHL was already on its way to changing who runs things, and Tulsky was the first one to successfully kick in the door as a true outsider. I use the word “successfully” very deliberately there, as I would argue the then-Arizona Coyotes hiring John Chayka was an analytics-oriented move that predated Tulsky. The problem was, that hire didn’t work out all that much, and Chayka was fired and left the game before returning this offseason in Toronto. But whereas Chayka didn’t really have much of a track record to justify his hiring, Tulsky did, and he backed it up by winning a championship. Now Mehta comes in with a pretty sparkling resume of his own. I’m not going to say that a Moneyball revolution is riding on whether Mehta sinks or swims. That would be reductive and shortsighted, especially considering the analytics movement didn’t die with Chayka. But I will say this: If Mehta succeeds in the same way Tulsky did, I think even the 200 hockey men are going to be way more inclined to believe in analytics. For now, they have the luxury of viewing Tulsky as a one-off anomaly since no one else with his type of background has achieved anything in the NHL. But if Mehta succeeds, people would be forced to see this as a viable, repeatable, dependable option, not just a passing fad or a lucky outlier.
For now, I don’t think Devils fans, myself included, care all that much about leading a revolution in how the game of hockey is managed. We just want to win. Still, it might be worth at least a passing thought on what Mehta’s hire means in the larger context of hockey history. If Mehta really does go on to become a general manager who, dare I say, brings some Stanley Cups to New Jersey and builds himself a hall of fame career as a builder, I think there’s a real possibility that his hiring is looked back on as the spark that ignited the Moneyball revolution in the NHL. And wouldn’t that just be the coolest thing ever to know that it was our guy who revolutionized the game we all know and love?
The Columbus Blue Jackets have 52 days until opening night at Nationwide Arena. Today we look at the history of jersey #52. Almost every player on this list has a bad reputation of some sort.
Let's take a look.
Adam Foote - 2006-08 - Foote was the first player to wear #52 for the Blue Jackets in their history. In August of 2005, Adam Foote signed a 3-year contract with the Columbus Blue Jackets. At the time, it seemed like a wonderful thing. A long-time star chose to sign with a young expansion team, and things were looking up. He would be joining a team with guys like Rick Nash, Sergei Federov, Todd Marchant, and Geoff Sanderson. After just a few months, Foote was given the C after Luke Richardson stepped down as the captain.
In his first season with Columbus, he would play in 65 games. He scored six goals and had 22 points, which was good enough for third among defensemen on the team. The 2006-07 season saw him play 59 games. Foote only scored three goals and had 12 points. His first two seasons in Columbus weren’t going too well. In the third and final year of his contract, he would play in 63 games for the CBJ, scoring one goal and totaling 15 points. He was actually on pace to have his best year in a CBJ uniform.
On February 26th of 2008, Adam Foote was traded to the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for a pair of draft picks. The rumor was that Columbus was trying to re-sign Foote, but Foote was pricing himself out of Columbus. The rumors back then were that Foote and his agent set their contract demands so high because they knew Columbus wouldn’t accept them, essentially forcing his way out of Columbus.
He ended his tenure with Columbus by playing in 187 games and totaling 49 points. He would play until 2011, and then he decided to retire. He was hired by the Vancouver Canucks to coach the 25-26 season, but was fired shortly after the season ended. He is now an asst. coach for the Utah Mammoth.
Craig Rivet - 2011 - Originally drafted by Montreal in 1992, where he played the first 12 years of his career, he came to the Jackets at the end of his career in 2004. Rivet, who was the captain of the Buffalo Sabres at the time, was waived by Buffalo on February 23, 2011. On February 26, 2011, Rivet was claimed on re-entry waivers by the Jackets, where he played in 14 games and totaled 1 point. After announcing his retirement in October of 2011, he signed with the ECHL's Elmira Jackals. It was later discovered that he signed the contract to obtain his United States permanent residency.
Kerby Rychel - 2015 - Rychel was drafted by Columbus in the first round of the 2013 draft and is the son of former NHL enforcer Warren Rychel. Unfortunately, the book on Kerby Rychel is really short. After playing just 37 games over two seasons, Rychel was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs for defenseman Scott Harrington. Rychel would go on to play only 6 more NHL games in his career.
He spent two seasons playing for Columbus' AHL affiliate, the Springfield Falcons, and the Lake Erie Monsters. He would help the Monsters win the 2016 Calder Cup by totaling 27 points in 37 games.
In 2019, he would leave for Swedish club Örebro HK of the Swedish Hockey League. He would quickly terminate that contract when KHL club HC Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk offered him a deal on September 3, 2019. The team would terminate his contract after only seven games when he failed to score a single point.
Rychel is officially retired.
Emil Bemström - 2020-24 - The Blue Jackets drafted Emil Bemström in 2017, #117 overall. Although he wasn’t a high draft pick, many draft experts thought the CBJ had found a decent player—a shifty skater with a very good shot who would score.
Bemström made his NHL debut during the 19-20 season. He would play in 56 games that season, scoring 10 goals and 20 points. Additionally, he played five playoff games in the bubble in 2020 but would fail to score a point.
During the shortened 2021 season, Bemström played 20 NHL games and also played for HIFK in Liiga. He would only score three goals and total five points for the Jackets. For HIFK, however, he had 17 points in 16 games. During a game in May of 2021, Bemström would net a natural hat trick against the Nashville Predators, his first NHL goal since March 2020.
In the 2021-22 season, Bemström would only play 41 games for the Jackets. He scored six goals and had 11 points. He would also play four games for Cleveland of the AHL, scoring two goals.
In the 2022-23 season, Bemström would see his time split between Columbus and Cleveland. In Cleveland, he would play in 21 total games, scoring 14 goals and totaling 31 points. He seemed to be able to score and assist at will. In Columbus, however, it was a different story. He played in 55 games, scoring 7 goals for 22 points, and averaged 12 minutes per game on ice.
Fans have a love/hate relationship with Emil Bemström. Most people think of him as a top prospect with unlimited potential, but they need to realize he was a 4th-round pick. Although a lot of scouts and draft experts didn’t think Bemström would even play in the NHL, he has shown that he can at least score a few goals.
But on April 13th, 2023, against the Pittsburgh Penguins, that love/hate relationship came to a head. Through no fault of his own and simply doing what he is being paid to do, he scored a power-play goal. The Penguins were winning the game 2-1 with a little over three minutes left to play. Johnny Gaudreau would go on to win the game for the Jackets in OT. This win sealed the Jackets' fate in that they would not secure the worst record in the NHL, thus losing out on the chance to draft #1 overall. A large portion of CBJ fans turned on Bemström for this, unfairly. He seemed to have been forgiven after the Blue Jackets were able to secure Adam Fantilli.
Bemström's time in North America has come to an end after it was reported that he will be signing with SC Bern of the Swiss National League. In his first season back in Europe, he totaled 20 points in 33 games.
Who was favorite, or least favorite #52?
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The New Jersey Devils don't have a player on their roster who cracked the NHL's list of top-20 defensemen. They have seen Dougie Hamilton on it before, and Luke Hughes has the potential to get his name in the mix, but it didn't happen ahead of the 2026-27 season.
Where there is hope, however, is a potential acquisition for the New Jersey Devils. If the Minnesota Wild don't extend Luke's brother Quinn Hughes, the Devils would be adding an elite player. The NHL ranked him at number two, only trailing Cale Makar of the Colorado Avalanche.
NHL Network's Top 20 Defensemen Right Now list has a total of: • 21 total All-Star Game appearances • 11 All-Rookie team honors • Seven Norris Trophies • Seven Olympic Gold Medals • Four Calder Trophies • Two Conn Smythe Trophies • Six Stanley Cups
Of course, it would be an incredible family story if Quinn Hughes came to the New Jersey Devils, but there are hockey reasons that it makes sense as well.
In 2025-26, Hughes had 7 goals and 69 assists for 76 points in 74 games played. He was also the number one defenseman on Team USA, which won Gold in Milano Cortina's 2026 Winter Olympic Games.
If that type of production came to the Devils, with the young core they have in place at forward and on defense, they'd go from playoff hopefuls to Stanley Cup contenders. New Jersey is a franchise rich in history of elite defensemen winning Cups, and Quinn would be a great addition to that.
Quinn was traded to the Minnesota Wild during the 2025-26 season from the Vancouver Canucks, who were made aware that he wanted to eventually play with his brothers when his contract came up. Now, it seems to be a decision between the Wild and Devils for the 26-year-old superstar.
Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier form one of the league's best center duos in the NHL, which is incredibly important for winning in the playoffs, and having that reliable number one defenseman would only enhance their chances.
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Welcome to The Hockey News - Vancouver Canucks site’s 2026–27 player preview article series. This series will outline the expectations for every player projected to play for the Canucks during the 2026–27 season. Today’s player is Canucks defenceman Luke Schenn.
Schenn's 2025–26 Season
Schenn spent last year with both the Winnipeg Jets and the Buffalo Sabres. The 36-year-old recorded seven points in 46 games for the Jets before being dealt to the Sabres at the trade deadline. During his time in Buffalo, Schenn played four regular-season games along with two in the playoffs.
Once the off-season rolled around, Schenn chose to join Vancouver for the third time in his career. The right-shot defender signed a one-year deal on July 1, which carries an AAV of $2.25 million. Over his career, Schenn has played 139 games with the Canucks and recorded 612 hits.
Schenn's 2026–27 Predictions
Based on Vancouver's roster, Schenn will most likely slot in on the Canucks' third pair beside Elias Pettersson. He will be a key part of the penalty kill when in the lineup and should finish near the top of the team standings for hits at the end of the campaign. Ultimately, it will be interesting to see how many games Schenn plays and if he becomes a tradeable asset ahead of the deadline.
One of Schenn's biggest jobs this year will be to help fix the locker room. The two-time Stanley Cup champion will be part of the leadership group and can help guide the younger players on Vancouver's roster as they learn how to become everyday NHLers. Schenn brings plenty of value off the ice and will be relied upon as a culture guy for the organization.
Finally, Schenn is closing in on an NHL record. If he can record 191 hits this year, the former Kelowna Rockets standout will become the first defender in league history with 4,000 career hits. Only one other player has achieved this impressive feat, with that being forward Cal Clutterbuck, who recorded 4,029 hits in 1,064 games.
Jan 24, 2023; Vancouver, British Columbia, CAN; Vancouver Canucks defenseman Luke Schenn (2) awaits the start of play against the Chicago Blackhawks during the first period at Rogers Arena. Mandatory Credit: Anne-Marie Sorvin-USA TODAY Sports
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What he accomplished during his rookie season, as an 18-year-old, was unprecedented: scoring 23 goals with 36 assists for 59 points in 82 games, averaging 24:41 minutes per night while playing on the top defense pairing and the top power-play unit, and filling in on the penalty kill when needed.
There's no question that Schaefer is already a top-10 defenseman in this league but just how high on that list should he be?
NHL Network has been doing its Top 20 Defensemen Right Now list, with Schaefer coming in at No. 7.
Not bad, rookie!
The @NYIslanders rookie sensation Matthew Schaefer debuts at #️⃣7️⃣ on NHL Network's Top 20 Defensemen Right Now list!
Here are the names behind Schaefer: Jake Sanderson (8), Moritz Seider (9), Evan Bouchard (10), Charlie McAvoy (11), Jaccob Slavin (12), Adam Fox (13), Brock Faber (14), Roman Josi (15), Josh Morrissey (16), Jackson LaCombe (17), Victor Hedman (18), Shea Theodore (19), and Devon Toews (20).
Here are the names in front of Schaefer: Cale Makar (1), Quinn Hughes (2), Zach Werenski (3), Rasmus Dahlin (4), Miro Heiskanen (5), and Lane Hutson (6).
Come this time next season, will Schaefer be in the top five?
While the peaks of the NHL offseason and free agency are well in the rearview mirror at this point, the Philadelphia Flyers find themselves at the center of things still, represented by some of the best remaining players still on the market.
For example, at the goalie position, veteran free agent Cam Talbot remains one of the top netminders available after an uneven stint on a mediocre Detroit Red Wings team.
Another former Flyers player among the best remaining free agents at their respective position who also played on last year's Red Wings is none other than former Flyers No. 2 overall pick James van Riemsdyk, who has carved out a late-career renaissance as an efficient depth scorer for an aspiring contender.
van Riemsdyk, 37, remains unsigned over one month after the opening of free agency despite scoring a respectable 15 goals, 16 assists, and 31 points in 72 games for the Red Wings, which he managed to achieve even while receiving a career-low average of 11:45 of ice time.
The former Flyers winger isn't quite the same player he was even in his second stint with Philadelphia, as four full seasons have now passed since van Riemsdyk's last 20-goal season, a 24-tally campaign with the Flyers in 2021-22.
Still though, van Riemsdyk is, after all, an NHL veteran of 1,154 regular season games and a seven-time 20-goal-scorer; if he still wants to continue his NHL career, he has the savvy and the experience to benefit a contender.
The Middletown, New Jersey, native has made the rounds in the Eastern Conference over the last few years, playing with four teams in as many years. After leaving the Flyers in 2023, van Riemsdyk has played with the Boston Bruins, Columbus Blue Jackets, and Detroit Red Wings.
Even those teams are a step or two removed from the likes of Florida, Colorado, Edmonton, Vegas, and Carolina.
These cap-strapped teams (with the exception of Carolina) could do worse than to nab van Riemsdyk on a cheap one-year deal to offer the wily vet one last chance at the elusive Stanley Cup.
van Riemsdyk played the bulk of his 17-year NHL career with the Flyers, scoring 146 goals, 151 assists, and 297 points in 527 games in the Orange and Black.
The Chicago Blackhawks traded for Bowen Byram ahead of the 2026 NHL Draft and then extended him to a long-term, lucrative contract that kicks in after this upcoming season. They have a lot of faith in him to become a true star.
After becoming the 4th overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft, Byram has spent his entire NHL career in the shadows of other elite defenseman. With the Colorado Avalanche, he was behind Cale Makar, and with the Buffalo Sabres, he was behind Rasmus Dahlin.
Other defenders like Devon Toews and Owen Power were also there along the way in his career, so he never had that chance to shine truly.
The Blackhawks have allowed him to be a number-one defenseman, and it’s on him now to run with that chance. The offensive forwards on the team will be mutually beneficial to his game if everything goes as planned.
Byram is not an old player by any means at 25 years old, but he is older than Wyatt Kaiser, Artyom Levshunov, and Sam Rinzel, among other players who could slot onto the blue line at some point.
On Sunday night, the list of the top 20 defensemen in the NHL was revealed by the league, and it did not include Byram. Cale Makar came in at number 1, Rasmus Dahlin was number 4, and Devon Toews rounded out the top 20, but Byram wasn’t able to crack the list.
NHL Network's Top 20 Defensemen Right Now list has a total of: • 21 total All-Star Game appearances • 11 All-Rookie team honors • Seven Norris Trophies • Seven Olympic Gold Medals • Four Calder Trophies • Two Conn Smythe Trophies • Six Stanley Cups
In 2025-26, Byram had 11 goals and 31 assists for 42 points on a Buffalo Sabres team that went to the playoffs and won a round. He was the number two option when it came to offense from the back end on the power play and at even strength and still put up good numbers, but not good enough to make the list.
So what type of numbers would he have to accumulate to make this list next year heading into his age-26 season? He is not going to be one of the league’s top defensive defenseman, but he’s good enough to complement a strong game offensively from the back end. 15 goals or more along with north of 60 points could get him a nod on the list. Surpassing 70 or more would almost guarantee it.
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NEWARK, NEW JERSEY - APRIL 21: New Jersey Devils introduce General Manager Sunny Mehta at Prudential Center on April 21, 2026 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Andrew Maclean/NHLI via Getty Images) | NHLI vis Getty Images
Here are your links for today:
Devils Links
“Given Sunny Mehta’s past career as a professional poker player, it makes sense that he talks frequently and confidently about making bets. That mindset shaped his first offseason as New Jersey Devils general manager.” [The Athletic ($)]
“All told, there are three prospects whose rights with their respective organizations expire a week to the day, and all three of them should be appealing for one way or another to the New Jersey Devils. There’s no such thing as too strong a pipeline, and the Devils have the contract space to add a few promising players.” [Infernal Access]
“Seamus Casey still has promise, but is his future as an NHLer with the New Jersey Devils?” [Devils on the Rush]
Hockey Links
A notable offseason storyline:
"I will worry about this if it's not done by the start of the season." 😳@FriedgeHNIC stopped by #NHLTonight to provide the latest on Quinn Hughes and a potential contract extension with the @mnwild.
A look at a few top value contracts around the league: [Sportsnet]
The Kings will retire Anze Kopitar’s No. 11:
ONE OF ONE. The @LAKings will retire Anze Kopitar’s No. 11 and unveil a bronze statue of the franchise’s all-time leading scorer @cryptocomarena on February 24, 2027, against the Montreal Canadiens.
