Kirill Marchenko trade rumors had swirled since the draft, and it came to fruition when the Columbus Blue Jackets dealt him to the Toronto Maple Leafs right before the NHL roster submission deadline on Monday, Sept. 28.
The Blue Jackets get back forwards Matthew Knies and Steven Lorentz, defenseman Emil Andrae and a second-round pick for Marchenko, 26, who scored 31 goals two seasons ago and had 27 goals last season. Forward Miles Wood and injured goalie Elvis Merzlikins also head to Toronto in the tarde.
Toronto agreed to terms with Marchenko on a six-year, $75 million extension with a cap hit of $12.5 million starting in 2027-28, agent Dan Milstein posted on social media.
Here are trade grades for the Columbus Blue Jackets-Toronto Maple Leafs deal involving Kirill Marchenko:
Kirill Marchenko trade details
According to multiple reports, the Columbus Blue Jackets traded forwards Kirill Marchenko and Miles Wood, plus goaltender Elvis Merzlikins, to the Toronto Maple Leafs for forwards Matthew Knies and Steven Lorenz, defenseman Emil Andrae and a second-round pick. Columbus retains 18 percent of Merzlikins' contract.
Kirill Marchenko trade grades
Columbus Blue Jackets - B+
This is a solid return for Marchenko, considering he reportedly did not want to re-sign with Columbus when his contract expires in July. Knies is three years younger than Marchenko and is a 6-foot-3 power forward. He totaled 52 goals over the past two seasons and could benefit from a change of scenery. He's signed through 2030-31 at a reasonable $7.75 million cap hit. Dealing Wood and Merzlikins helps the Blue Jackets get under the salary cap after re-signing Adam Fantilli.
Toronto Maple Leafs - B+
Marchenko was the Blue Jackets' leading goal scorer and could put up even bigger numbers playing in the Maple Leafs' top six. Wood has plenty of speed, though he's coming off a disappointing 14-point season. Andrae, acquired by Toronto this offseason, was available because the Maple Leafs signed Nick Blankenburg this week. New GM John Chayka has been busy reshaping the Leafs after their nine-season playoff streak ended.
Elsewhere in the NHL
The Winnipeg Jets claimed goalie Clay Stevenson off waivers from the Washington Capitals. Winnipeg gets goalie depth with Connor Hellebuyck still not reporting amid a trade request.
The Pittsburgh Penguins placed forwards Justin Brazeau, Ben Kindel, Blake Lizotte and Bryan Rust and defenseman Ryan Graves on injured reserve.
St. Louis Blues defenseman Logan Mailloux, injured in a fight, had surgery on his hand and will be re-evaluated in eight weeks.
Defenseman Alberts Smits, the No. 5 overall pick in 2026, made the New York Rangers' opening roster. He played for Latvia in the Olympics, world championships and world junior championships.
MARYLAND
HEIGHTS, Mo. -- Adam
Jiricek took the news as well as could be under the circumstances.
Of
course, the first-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft by the St. Louis
Blues was disappointed when told he was being assigned to Springfield
of the American Hockey League following a 1-0 preseason win over the
Chicago Blackhawks last Thursday, but the defenseman understood.
“After
the interview I had after (Thursday's preseason game), I got the call
to go up and speak to the management in 10 minutes and they told me,
and you have to accept it,” Jiricek
said.
“I did my best, but it didn't happen. So I went down and I was
ready to work there and wait for my chance again and it came pretty
quick. I'm happy for that and very excited.”
The
20-year-old didn’t have to wait long.
He
barely got settled in Springfield, where the right shot D-man was to
get tons of playing time and a plethora of minutes.
“I
got there Friday night,” Jiricek
said.
“I was there Saturday, just like morning skate, and on Sunday I
went with (Juraj) Pekarcik to move their stuff from storage to the
house and I was about to buy my bed and furniture. But I got the call
that I'm going up, so we turned around and I didn't buy anything. I
went to pack my stuff and I put my hockey bag in the moving truck and
he just drive me in this truck to the airport and they went to move
into the house.
“If
(the Blues) would have called me an hour later, I would have bought
the bed and moved everything. I was lucky I got the call before and
didn't buy anything. I just used the truck to move my stuff to the
airport and he dropped me there and he went to his new house there.
Juraj Pekarcik and Jakub Stancl, they're going to live together and I
was supposed to live with them. But I went with Pekarcik, so he
dropped me off there, and I appreciate that he did that for me.
Change of plans pretty quick.”
“I
left Sunday at 5 p.m. and I got here (in St. Louis) like at 9. I
spent the day at the airport with one flight connecting. It was
pretty quick.”
But
when Logan Mailloux injured his right hand in a fight Saturday during
a 3-2 preseason loss in Chicago, that the Blues confirmed on Monday
that will sideline him for at least eight weeks, things changed
drastically, and Jiricek has been summoned to go into the fire.
“I
feel like I didn't realize everything right away because it was so
fast and I couldn't process all the thinking,” Jiricek said. “It's
hard to see what is happening. I just get there, I was there one
night, and I'm going back. It was pretty quick and I don't have time
to think about it, so I'm just excited. I'm moving my thinking to
play here.”
Montgomery
called it, “Very
deserving. I believe mentally, he thinks he shouldn’t have been
sent down, but you like that,
that’s what you want.”
Now
the question becomes: what do the Blues do with Jiricek?
Well,
they didn’t bring him up to the NHL to sit, so you have to assume
he will play, but will he play alongside Philip Broberg in Mailloux’s
place? It’s a 50/50 shot, because Montgomery said he will not make
the mistake of playing two young d-men together. That means Jiricek
will not play with Theo Lindstein and get either Broberg or Cam
Fowler.
“I
hope not, but if the game calls for it to make adjustments … for
instance, (Broberg) playing with Jiricek, you can think it’s great
chemistry right now,” Montgomery
said.
“In my mind I can think it, but I’m going to look out there and
see like there isn’t. Now maybe Fowler goes with Jiricek. But he’s
definitely going to play with a veteran. I’m not going to have
Jiricek and Lindstein out there together. It’s just not fair to
them.”
“We
haven’t made complete, finished plans yet. I have no problem
sliding him in there
(with Broberg),
but if he slides in there, they’re not going to play the No. 1
offensive line, they’ll play in the two-hole. The good thing is we
have so much depth on our D-core. (Brandon)
Carlo
and (Colton)
Parayko
have played in line matchups against top pairings their entire
careers, Broberg has, so had 17 (Fowler). We have four D-men that
have done that at the NHL at a high level.”
Blues
general manager Alex Steen realizes that with Jiricek, this is a
long-haul project, but that doesn’t preclude things from happening
perhaps sooner than they expected.
“Yeah,
we were looking at everything,” Steen
said.
“With Adam we're in it for the marathon, so we wanted to make sure
that we were putting him in the best position to succeed. That's
still the goal, (but) obviously things change in the game very
quickly. We try to re-adjust and still be able to give him that
opportunity to be in positions to succeed consistently. Yeah we feel
strongly about Adam. He's had a great camp. I'd say great over his
last 18 months, he's taken a lot of steps, so it's an exciting time
for him.”
But
Montgomery doesn’t to put any expectations on Jiricek … not yet
anyway.
“I
don’t want to put any labels on him because of the undue pressure,
but I think the ceiling is very high and I hope to see it as soon as
possible,” Montgomery
said.
“He has shown the ability to adapt his game and easily make changes
that are going to make him harder to play against offensively and
defensively. I don’t see any … live with mistakes, yeah I want to
live with aggressive mistakes, and the way he thinks, the way he
plays the game, he’s going to make mistakes being aggressive, and
we can teach him. You’d rather teach a tiger with stripes on
already than someone that doesn’t have any stripes and have that
mindset.”
It
appears, unless the Blues insert Justin Barron, who was claimed off
waivers from the Nashville Predators on Sunday, into the opening
night lineup, that Jiricek will get his chance to make his NHL debut
in the season-opener against the Dallas Stars on Friday, and he will
get special teams work right away.
“He’s
going to play power play,” Montgomery
said.
“He’s special offensively, and we’re going to put him in
situations to succeed. It’s up to him to grab it and take it.
“The
levels that he’s played at so far, he can get away with holding
onto pucks and moving pucks, skating with pucks longer. When you’re
in the NHL on the power play, the puck should move faster than any
player, it always has, and he’s got to learn to learn to get to the
middle of the ice and be a little more stationary and let his puck
skills and deception with the puck … instead of moving all over the
place at the blue line, he should move it and get to the middle and
make the power play go from the middle of the ice. That’s something
that people have to learn.”
If
Jiricek gets to make his debut Friday, he welcomes it with open arms,
and after the training camp he had, the confidence should be pretty
steady.
“It's
exciting,” Jiricek
said.
“I didn't play in the NHL yet, so it's a dream. It's still a couple
of days until the game. I think it's going to hit me like harder when
I'm going to see that I'm in the lineup.
“…
I
was trying to play my best hockey (in
camp) and
I think I did pretty good. I showed myself and I want to keep
building on that and continue what I'm supposed to do. I feel like I
can play here and I can make the team better and that's what I'm
going to try to do.”
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When discussing the state of the Pittsburgh Penguins and both the immediate and far-out picture of where the team is at, general manager and president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas has always remained a bit coy.
But, that was not the case during his season-opening press conference on Monday.
Dubas and the Penguins have no plans to regress this season and in a general sense, and that much was made clear during his presser when he said they want to "preserve where we're at" while making progress toward separating themselves from the mid-tier teams in the league.
The big question, though, is how they're going to execute getting there. He said that the core-level veteran players the Penguins have cannot keep carrying the load if they expect to become sustainable, legitimate contenders, and they need youth to begin taking more and more of that mantle while keeping the team competitive in the process.
"This year, it's a very pivotal season for the group in that regard," Dubas said. "Can we continue to add younger players to the group to not only preserve where we're at but push us ahead and remove us from what I would say is the middle ground of the league?"
In a telling presser where he was a bit bolder than usual, he may have pulled back the blinds on the Penguins' plans, even just a little bit. Here are three takeaways from that presser.
1. The Penguins will remain vigilant in the trade market
As far as how they're going to acquire that much-needed talent to ease the burden of their oldest players to drive the team to contention? A lot of it, Dubas said, is about priming the younger players they have to take the next step, but it's also going to involve staying alert and vigilant regarding the trade market when it comes to Egor Chinakhov and Nick Robertson types.
However, if the team continues to take steps toward contention this season, and if bigger-name players become available, Dubas won't rule out the Penguins' involvement.
"There's not a younger player in the league that becomes available that we don't investigate, both in terms of the assets that we have - younger players, draft picks - and also, if a team is looking for more veteran players, we have those, too, that can help their clubs," Dubas said. "Where we get into is whether it’s a fit overall between the two teams in terms of the pieces that they’re looking for."
He mentioned that being involved in discussions involving bigger names is tough without the assets to do so, citing the Bowen Byram trade before the draft this summer that involved a fourth overall pick going the other way. But he was adament in saying that the Penguins would be on the phone regardless.
"Every single player of that nature that becomes available, regardless of their profile, we’ll be involved," Dubas said. "And, as we’ve executed on repeatedly over the last two-plus years, those are the types of players that we’re almost exclusively acquiring via trade. We’ll continue to look at all of those that come up."
In other words, don't rule out the Penguins being "splashier," as their GM would say. But being "splashier" will require both their veterans to keep playing at a high level and their young talent to take pretty substantial steps to bolster value. The Penguins don't have the high-end draft capital that rebuilding teams covet, but they won't hesitate to move out veterans and prospects if it means they're acquiring an impact player who projects well with their future plans.
In the meantime and the short-term, though, expect them to stay quite active in acquiring change-of-scenery and upside-types until bigger talent becomes available and until they have the proper ammunition to pull something bigger off.
2. It's all about timing for younger players, but the time is fast-approaching
Speaking of younger players, there is still a whole lot of belief in the young players the Penguins have within their organization. Dubas touched on the two main prospect pieces of the Jake Guentzel trade in Ville Koivunen and Harrison Brunicke being on the verge of, hopefully, taking some big strides in their development, and he and the rest of the staff were impressed with goaltender Sergei Murashov's Calder Cup Playoff run at the end of the 2025-26 season enough to make him a shoe-in for an NHL roster spot this year.
However, even when discussing players like Rutger McGroarty and Owen Pickering, Dubas understands that development isn't linear nor the same for every player. Some players may take a bit longer than others, and some may not reach their potential at all.
"I would love if all of them came in, had one year in the minors, and made the NHL right away. You’re trying to really thread it between giving a clear opportunity for them to earn but also make it really competitive," Dubas said. "The players always always come through it better when it’s competitive and they have to go out and get it rather than it just being handed [to them].
"There’s always competition between the prospects, as well. I would love every one of them at 22 to be in the NHL full time, and that’s what we aspire to and push for. But we can’t force them in when it’s too early. We just have to keep with our plan."
But he also knows where the organization is at and that, at some point, the burden is on players like McGroarty and Pickering - even the 20-year-old Brunicke, who is expected to play a huge role next to Pickering for WBS this season - to keep pushing and shoving through the competition for roster spots until they earn their full-time ticket to the NHL. The Penguins are at a point where they need some of these players to start showing out, even if some aren't in the NHL to start the season.
"What I would love to see happen is for younger guys to work their way up the lineup to beat down the doors in the American League and force us to have to create room for them and they can make a positive impact here," Dubas said. "If we get deep into the year and we're not in that position, or we don't feel we're truly gaining ground on Carolina or truly contending, we'll have to make some more difficult decisions."
Unlike in years past, big things are expected from some young players this season, particularly the five mentioned here. Dubas and the Penguins are relying on them taking steps to show they will help the team win now and in the future. If they don't take those steps, things could get a bit dicey, and some decisions will have to be made.
3. 'Tough decisions' are on the horizon... and they won't be afraid to push things along.
Of course, the most glaring bit that got folks talking after this press conference was when Dubas was - once again - asked about the potential of Evgeni Malkin's future and whether another extension would be considered.
“I’m not going to do this day-to-day, year-by-year thing with Geno again this year," Dubas said shortly and simply.
I asked Kyle Dubas if his understanding with Evgeni Malkin when they discussed a contract for this season was that it would be his final year in Pittsburgh.
Dubas gave a blunt answer: "I'm not gonna do this day-to-day, year-by-year thing with Geno again this year."
Personally, I wouldn't read into this as Dubas saying "Geno isn't coming back" rather than him just getting tired of fielding questions about Malkin's future when the response is pretty much always the same. However, it's not difficult to read between the lines a little bit, especially as he gave an extended answer to a similar question offered about Sidney Crosby earlier.
Later on, Dubas did speak on the "reverance" for Crosby, Malkin, and Kris Letang, who are entering their 21st season together and have spent more time with each other on one team than any other trio in North American professional sports history. It's a unique situation, and it puts the team in uncharted territory when it comes to getting younger while also understanding the impact these players have on that young talent that is supposed to shape their future.
But, again, he was up-front about where he believes this team is at and where it needs to go. And he knows that, even with other peripheral core players like Bryan Rust, Rickard Rakell, and Erik Karlsson, they can't fall short on taking action to get them closer to their goal of closing that gap with Carolina.
"I don't think remaining in that middle ground can get us back into contention in any sort of short order," Dubas said in his opener. "So, that'll take bold decisions and hard decisions."
And, if push comes to shove, some of those hard decisions are likely to involve roster mainstays and veterans. If Letang is pushed out of playing time by a guy like Brunicke, they're not going to hold Brunicke back on Letang's account. If Malkin takes a step back and is surpassed on the depth chart by Koivunen, McGroarty, Bill Zonnon, or anyone else, they're not going to bring him back next season. If Rakell, Rust, or Karlsson - if the third is willing to waive his no-movement clause - can be packaged to help them land a young talent they covet, they'll do it.
It seems like Dubas is done beating around the bush and is at a juncture where he won't hesitate on making the necessary but difficult moves to allow the team to get younger and progress closer toward being a sustainable contender.
Progression isn't just an ideal anymore, it's an expectation. And it's one that they're banking on this season.
"At the end of the year, we have to say we're getting closer to our goal where I think the public and you all and sit up there and say, 'They're a lot closer to being a team that can contend or they are a contender now.' It's just definitive," Dubas said. "And that may mean some difficult decisions along the way that are going to have to be made, you know, from my seat, but that's the job.
"That's really what we're aiming for in the year. I don't think we ever go into the year thinking that we're going to regress. We have to take steps toward getting back to, in the end, saying, 'Geez, this team is awfully close to knocking down the door again to being a team that can contend.'"
Stay seated, folks. The team's contention status at the end of this season should have a pretty profound impact on where things go from here.
The 5 p.m. cutoff for teams around the NHL to submit their opening night rosters has come, and the Minnesota Wild have unveiled theres.
Not featured on the roster are Filip Gustavsson and Brock Faber, both of whom will start the season on the injured reserve. Gustavsson is still recovering from off-season surgery, while Faber picked up an upper-body injury in a pre-season game.
Taking Gustavsson's roster spot is Calvin Pickard, whom the Wild acquired in the off-season on a one-year, $1 million contract.
Also making the opening-night roster are Charlie Stramel and David Spacek, both of whom competed for roster spots. Stramel beat out several other Wild prospects, while Spacek impressed the Wild coaching staff more than Carson Lambos, who cleared waivers and has joined the Iowa Wild in the AHL.
Besides Stramel and Spacek, there are no real surprises. Kirill Kaprizov and Marcus Foligno will wear the 'A's as alternate captains while Jared Spurgeon wears the 'C' as captain for the seventh season of his NHL career.
The Wild's NHL roster:
Forwards: Bobby Brink, Matt Boldy, Yakov Trenin, Joel Eriksson Ek, Charlie Stramel, Marcus Foligno, Blake Coleman, Danila Yurov, Ryan Hartman, Michael McCarron, Max Shabanov, Nick Foligno, Nico Sturm, and Kirill Kaprizov.
Defense: Olli Maatta, Zach Bogosian, Jonas Brodin, Quinn Hughes, Jared Spurgeon, Daemon Hunt, and David Spacek.
Goaltenders: Jesper Wallstedt and Calvin Pickard.
The Wild begin their NHL 2026-27 regular season on Thursday, Oct. 1 against the Nashville Predators on the road.
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A former Buffalo Sabres forward has finally found his home right before the start of the 2026-27 regular-season.
Former Buffalo Sabres forward Tyson Jost has signed a one-year, two-way contract with the Nashville Predators for the 2026-27 season.
The Predators announced the news on Monday afternoon.
Jost attended Nashville's training camp on a professional tryout (PTO) with the hope of landing a contract for the season from the Central Division club. Now, the former Sabres forward has successfully done just that.
Jost appeared in 69 games last season for the Predators, where he recorded eight goals, eight assists, 16 points, and a minus-21 rating.
Jost spent two seasons with the Sabres from 2022-23 to 2023-24. In 102 games with the Sabres over that span, the 28-year-old forward recorded 10 goals, 18 assists, and 28 points.
Jost's time with the Sabres ended during the 2024 NHL off-season when he signed a one-year contract with the Carolina Hurricanes in free agency.
MARYLAND
HEIGHTS, Mo. -- This
wasn’t how the St. Louis Blues envisioned starting the season off,
but circumstances force one to alter the hand and the team feels like
it’s in a good spot.
With
general manager Alexander Steen announcing on Monday morning that
defensemen Logan Mailloux and Tyler Tucker will each start off the
season on injured reserve – Mailloux will be re-evaluated in eight
weeks after having a procedure Sunday on his right hand and Tucker
being out week-to-week with a right knee injury that will require a
second opinion – the Blues have options that they feel will
hopefully make for a seamless transition after recalling Adam
Jiricek, a first-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft, and claiming
Justin Barron off waivers from the Nashville Predators.
“Very
good. He’s had a great camp,” Steen said of Mailloux. “That’s
the game. These things pop up when things are going good, and it’s
not the right timing, but this is part of the game. Logan is in a
good head space.
“Everything
went well (with the surgery). Now his main goal is to rehab and to
get himself as prepared as he was for camp for when he’s able to
return and at that time grab an oar and start rowing with the boys
again.”
Mailloux
was penciled in to begin the season paired with Philip Broberg on the
top pair, as they were to end last season when that duo really
started to take off.
“I
think he looked great,” Broberg said. “He was moving his feet,
passing the puck well, shooting it. He was looking very good, so it’s
unfortunate. He’s got to work his way back and get back as quick as
he can.”
Nonetheless,
the Blues feel they will have a hole to fill.
“That’s
a pretty significant loss just because he was playing so
aggressively, trusting his instincts, taking away time and space,
impacting the game at both ends of the ice,” Blues
coach Jim Montgomery said of Mailloux, who finished last season with
13 points (five goals, eight assists) in 67 games.
Mailloux
jumped in to confront Smith after the Blackhawks forward clipped
Broberg near his knee that resulted initially into a tripping minor
before the two scrapped.
“Yeah,
I think we've shown a lot of that, not just throughout the preseason
but discussions going into the year,” Steen said. “The guys feel
like they're growing in those areas and that was obviously a big play
by Logan.”
Broberg
appreciated his teammate jumping to his defense.
“I
jumped out of the way, I saw (Smith)
coming,” Broberg
said.
“He just got a piece of me. It’s hockey. It happens. I appreciate
(Mailloux) sticking up for me. Unfortunately, the fight went as it
went and just go from there.”
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In this episode of the Sens Nation Podcast, The Hockey News Ottawa site editor Steve Warne and co-hostGregg Kennedy discuss the big wave of cuts the Senators made Sunday. We also get into why the Sens appear to be keeping some extra bodies around because of injury concerns, particularly the ones involving Artem Zub, Jake Sanderson and Andre Burakovsky.
We talk abut the loss of goaltender Leevi Meriläinen, who was claimed off waivers by the Vancouver Canucks on Friday, and the Sens' decision to acquire Jonas Johansson from the Tampa Bay Lightning to fill the vacancy.
That leaves the Senators with an interesting possibility in goal: could all four of the Sens' goaltenders on the Ottawa/Belleville depth chart this season be Swedish?
We also review the Senators' preseason, discuss the NHL's sudden enforcement of the jersey-tucking rule, and look at the San Jose Sharks and Boston Bruins naming new captains.
And with opening night just days away, the big question is: How long until the Senators name their captain?
Mailloux will miss at least eight weeks after undergoing hand surgery, while Tucker is considered week-to-week with a lower-body injury. Not only have the Blues lost their seventh defenseman in Tucker, but they've also lost a player expected to play critical minutes in Mailloux.
This has made Barron a more important piece of the Blues roster than originally expected.
In addition to claiming Barron, the Blues recalled top prospect and 2024 first-round pick Adam Jiricek from the AHL's Springfield Thunderbirds.
While the organization has high hopes for Jiricek and was pleased with his pre-season performances, Barron joins the organization with 208 NHL games, a 6-foot-2 frame, and decent results.
In each of the past two seasons with the Predators, Barron posted Corsi For and expected goals percentages above 50 percent at 5-on-5. The Predators had been outscored with Barron on the ice, but much of that can be attributed to poor goaltending. The Predators posted save percentages of .864 and .904 with Barron on the ice in each of the last two seasons, according to NaturalStatTrick.com.
There are reasons to believe an improved enviroment can help Barron's game, and GM Alexander Steen is in agreement with that notion.
"Our scouts have liked his game when we watched him play," said the rookie GM. "This is a fresh start for him... We brought Adam (Jiricek) up, and we felt organizationally we had depth on our left side. This helps create more depth on our right side."
For Barron, he understands what this could mean for his career and is ready to show it.
"I'm here to show these guys what I can do, and hopefully bring an aspect of my game that can help this team win games."
For now, the 24-year-old will have to wait for his moment, as today's practice lines suggest Jiricek will get the first go in the lineup, skating alongside Cam Fowler on a power-play unit.
With a long 84-game season, injuries are inevitable, and one of the youngsters, Jiricek or Lindstein, could stumble out of the gate, opening a spot for Barron in the lineup.
In the meantime, Barron has to keep a next-man-up, stay-ready mindset.
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A former Pittsburgh Penguins forward is officially hanging up the skates.
Former Penguins forward Matt Nieto announced through his Instagram account that he has retired from professional hockey.
Nieto noted that injury trouble is the reason why he has decided to retire from hockey.
Nieto spent each of his last two NHL seasons with the Penguins in 2023-24 and 2024-25. He was limited to only 54 games over that span for the Metropolitan Division club, where he recorded two goals, seven points, 53 hits, and a minus-3 rating.
Nieto also played in 15 AHL games for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins during the 2024-25 season, posting three goals, four assists, seven points, and a plus-2 rating.
In 705 career NHL games over 12 seasons split between the San Jose Sharks, Colorado Avalanche, and Penguins, Nieto recorded 87 goals, 119 assists, and 206 points. He also posted eight goals and 21 points in 62 career NHL playoff games.
Overall, Nieto had a solid career as a depth forward in the NHL.
Two former Montreal Canadiens defensemen have found new homes after being placed on waivers.
This is because Justin Barron has been claimed off waivers by the St. Louis Blues, while William Trudeau has been claimed off waivers by the Nashville Predators.
Barron was placed on waivers earlier this week by Nashville. Now, the former Canadiens blueliner will be joining the Blues organization and will be aiming to impress.
Trudeau, on the other hand, was placed on waivers by the New York Rangers. The Canadiens traded Trudeau to the Rangers during the off-season for forward Brett Berard. Yet, Trudeau will now be joining the Predators instead.
Barron appeared in 52 games last season for the Predators, where he recorded nine assists and a minus-1 rating. He spent four seasons with the Canadiens from 2021-22 to 2024-25, where he posted 13 goals, 31 points, and a minus-11 rating in 109 games.
As for Trudeau, he is still looking to make his NHL debut. The 2021 fourth-round pick spent four seasons with the Laval Rocket but never earned a call-up to the Canadiens' roster before being traded this summer.
In 260 AHL games with Laval over four seasons, Trudeau recorded 28 goals, 62 assists, 90 points, 236 penalty minutes, and a plus-19 rating.
The Pittsburgh Penguins announced their opening-night roster for the 2026-27 season on Monday.
They will carry 22 players on the roster: 13 forwards, seven defensemen, and two goaltenders. Here's the full roster:
Forwards
Sidney Crosby
Evgeni Malkin
Egor Chinakhov
Connor Dewar
David Gustafsson
Filip Hallander
Ville Koivunen
Hendrix Lapierre
Tommy Novak
Rutger McGroarty
Rickard Rakell
Nick Robertson
Elmer Soderblom
Defensemen
Erik Karlsson
Kris Letang
Sam Girard
Declan Carlile
Kaedan Korczak
Trevor van Riemsdyk
Ilya Solovyov
Goaltenders
Arturs Silovs
Sergei Murashov
In addition, Justin Brazeau, Ben Kindel, Blake Lizotte, and Bryan Rust have been placed on injured reserve. Defenseman Ryan Graves is also on injured reserve and will be out indefinitely.
Forwards Tristan Broz, Melvin Fernstrom, and Oliver Okuliar, along with goaltender Gabriel D'Aigle, have been designated as injured non-roster.
Forward Andrei Kuzmenko has been designated as non-roster.
The Penguins will open the 2026-27 NHL season on Wednesday against the Philadelphia Flyers. Puck drop from Philadelphia will be at 7 p.m. ET on TNT and truTV.
The Penguins' home opener will be against the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday.
Josh Samanski was sent down to the AHL this morning, while Owen Michaels is still here in the NHL. So, did Michaels take Samanski's spot?
Samanski, like much of us, probably thought Matt Savoie's injury gave him a decent chance of sticking around. After all, the Edmonton Oilers were down several forwards when camp started, and Samanski was on the roster last season.
There wasn't anything particularly wrong with his camp either. He never really gave Edmonton a reason to be disappointed with what he was doing. His camp was just okay.
Just ok isn't always enough when roster spots disappear quickly, and another player keeps giving the coaching staff reasons to leave his name off the cut list. Michaels has done exactly that throughout camp, and Babcock has been pretty open about the fact that nobody expected him to still be here.
“Well, he's played well,” Babcock said. “He really can skate, and if you look back at his career, he wasn't a big scorer, so he didn't hang his hat on that. So he had to be a two-way, very effective player. He won a national championship, so he knows how to win, and he's in all the good clips.”
Babcock has talked quite a bit about Michael's film over the past few days. Saying things like he keeps ending up where he's supposed to be, he can skate and, his game doesn't depend on outscoring what he isn't doing, like being a reliable defensive forward.
“So it wasn't like we had this plan that he was going here, he wasn't supposed to be here, but that's the great thing about plans — you get to change them,” Babcock said.
The plan has certainly changed for Michaels. He came to Edmonton without much expectation of being around for opening night and is still practising with Edmonton after Samanski was sent to Bakersfield.
“Get down there and get to work,” Babcock said of Samanski. “So, the simple thing is you've got to figure out who you're going to be in the National Hockey League, and then when you go down to the AHL, they put you in a totally different role.
“You have to become an elite face-off guy, elite penalty killer, a great two-way defensive center to play here because that's going to be your job,” Babcock said. “In the American League, they want him to be on the power play, play on the first line, do all that. So sometimes it gets in the way, but as a player, you got to learn that.”
That's what Edmonton sees for Samanski. He needs to win draws, kill penalties and become somebody the Oilers can trust down the middle. He needs to be defensively reliable.
Babcock also made it clear that Samanski is at the point where those details need to become part of his game.
“He's old enough now to understand that's what he's got to do to get back,” Babcock said.
It is worth noting that Babcock is very much one to reward a player today for what they did yesterday. It's why Kasperi Kapanan took Isaac Howards place on the second line against Calgary the other night, and it could be why the Oilers choose to keep Micheals around for another day while sending Samanski down.
Savoie's injury seemed to create an opening for somebody when camp started, and Samanski had every reason to believe he could be one of the players who benefited from it. Meanwhile, Michaels may have thought the same thing.
Now Samanski is heading back to Bakersfield with a list of things Edmonton wants him working on, and Michaels is still here after Babcock admitted he wasn't supposed to make it this far.
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The results are in, 39 of our reporters and editors voted on a wide-array of questions related to the upcoming NHL season, including whowill win the Stanley Cupand other major individual awards.
Some other fun questions like which coach will be fired first, who will experience buyer's remorse and which city will be awarded the next franchise — and more!
With the season fast approaching and the Minnesota Wild playing its first game on Thursday, it is time to see where the Wild slotted in predictions.
Minnesota ranked first in the Presidents Trophy ranking along with the defending Stanley Cup Champions Carolina Hurricanes.
Out of the 39 writers, the Wild and Hurricanes totaled 16 votes (8 each) for a tie of first place. They were followed by Colorado, Florida, Edmonton, Dallas and Tampa Bay.
The Wild finished third in the Central Divison behind Dallas and Colorado last season and finished seventh in the NHL with a 46-24-12 (104Pts) record. The Avalanche won the Presidents Trophy last year with a 55-16-11 (121Pts) record.
I'm guessing a full season of Quinn Hughes and the breakouts of Matt Boldy, Brock Faber and Jesper Wallstedt played a big reason in everyones prediction.
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On Monday, the Winnipeg Jets claimed Washington Capitals depth goaltender Clay Stevenson on Monday, adding the 27-year-old Drayton Valley, Alberta native in what is likely a move to fill their backup role.
Speculation had suggested Winnipeg might look to bring back Eric Comrie, last season's backup, after he was placed on waivers. Instead, general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff opted for new blood, landing the longtime Hershey Bears standout from the AHL.
Stevenson has established himself as a reliable goaltender at the minor-league level over the four seasons since turning pro. He opened his AHL career with a 3-0-0 record, a 1.96 goals-against average and a .924 save percentage in his first three games. Across his AHL career, he is 63-31-11 with a 2.50 goals-against average and a .909 save percentage in 109 starts.
During the 2024-25 season, Stevenson's play earned him his NHL debut, where he faced off against the Pittsburgh Penguins and was solid in a 5-2 loss, stopping 33 of 38 shots. He was recalled again this past season and impressed once more, going 3-1-0 through four starts with a 2.00 goals-against average and a .921 save percentage.
Stevenson now looks at his best chance yet to secure a regular NHL role. For Cheveldayoff, the claim is a low-cost, high-reward addition, and one that gives Winnipeg a fresh option behind its starter as the season approaches.
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Head coach Mike Sullivan’s arrival did little to help the reeling club, as they found themselves on the outside looking in at the playoff picture once again. The Rangers underperformed and battled injuries to key pieces throughout the season, finishing in the basement of the Eastern Conference with a 34-39-9 record.
GM Chris Drury continued his retool ahead of the deadline and carried it into the offseason, making some intriguing additions along the way. None was more notable than new top scorer Pavel Dorofeyev, who was inked to a seven-year contract extension shortly after being acquired from the Golden Knights.
Drury bulked up the depth to try to survive any injuries and revamped the d-core with hopes of getting things trending back in the right direction -- whether it will be enough remains to be seen.
What the Rangers have going for them…
They return an offensive core that showed some positives down the stretch in what was an otherwise very disappointing season from top-to-bottom. The trio of Gabe Perreault, Mika Zibanejad, and Alexis Lafreniere showed a tremendous connection over the closing weeks and they will be back together to start the year.
You also have to hope that captain J.T. Miller will be able to put together a bounce back showing after he dealt with injuries throughout last season. Sliding in next to Dorofeyev should go a long way towards helping him, too.
On top of that, Drury made some low-risk forward additions to lengthen the lineup and bolster the wing depth.
Oliver Bjorkstrand was a consistent 20-goal scorer until his production dropped off last season with the Lightning, he’ll look to rebound alongside Miller and Dorofeyev on the second line. Eeli Tolvanen is an interesting add with Will Cuylle and Noah Laba as both look to take another step forward on the third line, as well.
Then you have the defense, which returns a steady top pair of a healthy Adam Fox and last year’s big free agent addition, Vladislav Gavrikov. They also brought in a new second unit with veteran Marcus Petterson and the puck-moving Sean Durzi, both of whom Drury hand picked in offseason trades.
Braden Schneider is bumped down to the third pairing, back on a one-year prove-it deal, and he’ll skate with this year’s first-round pick Alberts Smits, who proved that he is NHL-ready in camp.
Then you add in the rest of the up-and-coming young talent in the system up front and on the back end such as Scott Morrow, Drew Fortescue, Liam Greentree, and Cole Beaudoin among others. Depth, depth, depth is the big thing for this group -- they have the makings of a team ready to take some steps forward this season.
The Rangers will make the playoffs if…
Everything comes together as planned.
As both Drury and Sullivan mentioned during their pre-camp news conference, one of the biggest things that hurt them last season was losing Fox and Shesterkin for long periods to injury. The Blueshirts bulked up their depth so they could potentially withstand another absence, but they absolutely need a fully healthy season from both of their stars.
They also need to get off to a better start this season, especially on home ice.
New York Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin (31) celebrates with left wing Alexis Lafreniere (13) and center Mika Zibanejad (93) after defeating the Pittsburgh Penguins at Madison Square Garden / Vincent Carchietta - Imagn Images
New York struggled mightily at MSG last season, losing 15 of their first 25 games at the arena, putting them in a deep hole they were unable to recover from. Playing better hockey in front of the NYC faithful is an absolute must, especially with 10 of their first 17 games this year being on home ice.
Dorofeyev carrying over his goal-scoring ways would go a long way towards that, with him having found the back of the net 35+ times each of the last two seasons with the Golden Knights.
On top of that, they need the complimentary pieces to step up around him, particularly Miller, who is coming off an injury-plagued and unproductive first year as Rangers captain. Getting him back to a 70-80 point player would be huge.
The new defensive core will also need to click on the back end, tightening things up and putting together much more consistent efforts right off the bat in front of Shesterkin.
While the Metropolitan Division is getting more and more competitive, Drury seemingly has raised the floor on this squad. If all of these things come together, the Blueshirts should be able to climb their way right back into the playoff picture.
The Rangers will miss the playoffs if…
They can’t make up the production left behind after moving top scorer Artemi Panarin (deadline) and do it all center Vincent Trocheck (offseason).
Panarin hurts in the goal-scoring department, an area New York struggled with even while he was still on Broadway, and Trocheck stings on both ends of the ice. If their new-look top-six can’t step up and put the puck in the net on a nightly basis, this team isn’t going to go very far for the third straight season.
Nov 18, 2025; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; New York Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin (31) warms up before a game against the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena. / Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images
One of the biggest keys is also for Shesterkin to stay on the ice and return to the Vezina-winning form that carried them deep into their past postseason runs. Everything can come together in front of Shesterkin, but if he isn’t leading the way between the pipes it’s hard to see them crawling out of the cellar any time soon.
Drury made aggressive moves to try to quickly work through this retool. Whether it will be enough remains to be seen.
Prediction
Fifth place in Metropolitan Division, miss playoffs
This team has the pieces to take a step forward this season. The floor has been raised, but it’s hard to tell exactly what their ceiling is. The Rangers should be able to work their way back into playoff contention, but a lot has to go right for them to go much further than that.
I do expect that they’ll be playing meaningful hockey and fighting for a spot down the stretch, but with the Wild Card race expected to be tight once again, I don’t think it’ll be enough to snap the two-year playoff drought.
Drury’s seat would figure to only get hotter after parting ways with legit assets in this quick retool if the team doesn't get over the hump.
