Fresh off an exciting win on Opening Night, the Florida Panthers are set to continue their season-opening homestand on Thursday night.
The Panthers will welcome the Philadelphia Flyers to Sunrise in what will be Philly’s first game of the new season.
Florida featured some new-look forward lines in their opener, and overall the results were quite good.
The Panthers new top line of Sam Bennett centering Brad Marchand and Carter Verhaeghe created an impressive 14 scoring chances at even strength, which is more than the entire rest of the team combined (13), according to Natural Stat Trick.
Defensively, Florida’s fourth line, which featured new signing Luke Kunin skating between A.J. Greer and Jonah Gadjovich, was quite good defensively.
They allowed no scoring chances or high danger chances against, though they did earn three high danger chances of their own, generating a pair of rebound opportunities to boot.
As for the visiting Flyers, not only to they get to face the defending Stanley Cup Champs to open their season, but two of their first three games will come against the Cats, including their home opener on Monday.
Thursday’s game will also be the first behind the bench for new Flyers Head Coach Rick Tocchet.
The former Jack Adams winner will look to lead Philadelphia back to the playoffs for the first time since 2020.
Playing his first game in Flyers orange will be exciting young forward Trevor Zegras.
He was brought to Philly in an offseason trade after spending his first five seasons in the NHL with the Anaheim Ducks and will be looking to recapture the success he saw during his first three years in the league, and move past the frustrations of the past two.
Here are the Panthers’ projected forward lines and defensive pairings for Thursday’s matchup with the Flyers:
Photo caption: Oct 7, 2025; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Florida Panthers center Jesper Boqvist (70) celebrates with teammates after scoring against the Chicago Blackhawks during the third period at Amerant Bank Arena. (Sam Navarro-Imagn Images)
The wait is finally over as the Vancouver Canucks kick off their 2025-26 regular season against the Calgary Flames. Vancouver will be opening up their season at home, while Calgary started their campaign on Wednesday. Last season, the two Pacific Division rivals split the season series, with each team going 2-1-1.
A key for the Canucks will be getting out to a quick start. As mentioned, this will be the second half of a back-to-back for the Flames, who battled the Edmonton Oilers on the road in their season opener. If Vancouver can hold offensive possession and test Calgary's goaltender early and often, it could provide an advantage later in the game.
The Canucks also need to ensure they build off the energy provided by the fans. Rogers Arena is going to be loud, which should provide a boost for Vancouver, especially early on. Ultimately, the Canucks cannot afford a similar situation to last year, where Vancouver gave up a 4-1 first-period lead before falling 6-5 in overtime to the Flames.
Players To Watch:
Braeden Cootes
Welcome to the NHL, Braeden Cootes. After an impressive training camp and pre-season, the 2025 first-round pick will make his NHL debut, becoming the first 18-year-old since Petr Nedvěd in 1990 to play for Vancouver. Projected to play on a line with Evander Kane and Jonathan Lekkerimäki, it will be a special moment for Cootes and his family when he hits the Rogers Arena ice for his solo rookie lap.
Matvei Gridin
Another teenager in this game will be 19-year-old Matvei Gridin. A first-round pick in 2024, the Russian forward was selected using the Canucks draft pick, which was sent to Calgary in the Elias Lindholm trade. Coming off a successful NHL debut where he scored and recorded five shots, Gridin could be a handful for Vancouver in this game.
Make sure you bookmark THN's Vancouver Canucks site and add us to your favourites on Google News for the latest news, exclusive interviews, breakdowns, and so much more. Also, don't forget to leave a comment at the bottom of the page and engage with other passionate fans through our forum. This article originally appeared on The Hockey News.
The Philadelphia Flyers were hoping to splurge on a bonafide NHL star in the 2026 free agency class, but in recent weeks, their options rapidly thinned out.
Minnesota Wild star Kirill Kaprizov signed a record-breaking extension to stay put, and on Wednesday, Vegas Golden Knights center Jack Eichel agreed to an eight-year, $108 million ($13.5 million AAV) deal to remain in Sin City.
With those two off the market, the Flyers are left with only New York Rangers star Artemi Panarin to chase.
The problem, of course, is that Panarin will turn 34 years old at the end of this month.
It's certainly plausible the former 120-point-scorer hits free agency, given the volatile state of the Rangers and the general lack of team success there.
However, it's important to note that Panarin is in the last year of a seven-year, $81.5 million ($11.643 million AAV) contract and will be due for a big raise, regardless of his age. The 34-year-old is represented by agent Paul Theofanous, who just negotiated the eight-year, $136 million extension ($17 million AAV) for Kaprizov.
The Flyers do have some advantages in going after Panarin, such as being able to sell the veteran on playing with young talents and fellow Russians like Matvei Michkov, Nikita Grebenkin, and, soon, Egor Zavragin.
Fortunately, after clearing significant cap in the Ryan Ellis trade, the Flyers won't have any issues affording Panarin and any potential contract demands that end up being greater than what the public sphere would expect.
Plus, the Flyers hold arguably the greatest trump card in that Panarin's father-in-law, Oleg Znarok, works for the team and has for two seasons now.
Of course, signing Panarin doesn't address the Flyers' continued needs at the center position, but, in theory, they do still have Sean Couturier, and Trevor Zegras could very well surprise people now that he's rejuvenated and back home on the east coast.
From there, the Flyers would just have to hope that Jack Nesbitt and/or Jett Luchanko can fill out the bottom-six in the short term and develop some top-six upside in the right environment in the long term. Such a climate would be super friendly for that growth, too, given that it would include Panarin, Michkov, Travis Konecny, and Porter Martone.
But, in the event the Flyers aren't able to sign Panarin? Eichel and Kaprizov are already locked down, which effectively dashes any plans of making a splash signing in the 2026 free agency period.
Then, it would come down to a big trade, or no move at all.
Florida Panthers defenseman Uvis Balinskis, bottom, and Tampa Bay Lightning Dylan Duke scuffle during the third period of an NHL preseason game on Saturday in Sunrise, Florida.Photograph: Lynne Sladky/AP
The Florida Panthers–Tampa Bay Lightning rivalry was once a regional sideshow, a quirky matchup between two southern expansion teams playing to half-empty arenas and polite indifference. But in the space of just a few years it has mutated into the nastiest, most revealing feud in hockey: one that’s exposed the NHL’s double standards, cronyism and cultural divide.
Preseason hockey is meaningless by design, a handful of perfunctory tune-ups that even hardcore fans barely notice in the run-up to opening night, when the games finally start to count. Yet in the past week the Panthers and Lightning turned a pair of exhibition contests into three-hour fever dreams of violence: 114 penalties totaling nearly 500 minutes in the box, 16 game misconducts and one ejected player who somehow picked up an assist on an eighth goal that shouldn’t have counted. It was all-out bedlam before the season even began, but the uneven fallout has raised uncomfortable questions around the sport.
It all kicked off last Thursday when Florida’s AJ Greer sucker-punched Tampa’s Brandon Hagel in the head – a callback to last spring’s playoff meeting between the teams, when Hagel’s borderline hit on Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov sparked Florida defenseman Aaron Ekblad’s retaliatory headshot that left Hagel concussed. Greer’s cheap shot, punished with only a $2,000 fine, broke hockey’s unspoken code: you never go after a player with a known concussion history, especially one you’ve already injured.
So on Saturday, Tampa iced a lineup of AHL enforcers and spent the night exacting frontier justice. The league’s response? Heavy fines and suspensions for the Lightning, none for Florida.
The ugly scenes revived an old suspicion: that the NHL’s disciplinary system protects its favorites. The Panthers’ connections only make the optics worse. The league’s director of hockey operations, Colin Campbell, is a longtime power broker whose son is a minority owner and assistant general manager of – you guessed it – the Panthers. The head of player safety, George Parros, is a former Panther himself. A decade ago Campbell’s leaked emails showed him berating referees for not giving Florida preferential treatment. Nothing changed.
Across the NHL, this latest bloodbath looked like business as usual: a vivid reminder that hockey’s old-boy network pulls the strings on a two-tiered system of justice.
The bad blood has been brewing for years. For most of their existence the Panthers were an afterthought, overshadowed by the more successful Lightning, who won the first of their three Stanley Cups in 2004. Then they traded for Matthew Tkachuk – a brilliant, agitating forward – and hired a coach who encouraged the chaos. Overnight, the franchise became an almost comically ratty heel team: relentlessly annoying, gleefully abrasive and somehow good enough to win anyway. They ran goalies, took liberties after whistles, and seemed to delight in their role as the villains of modern hockey.
Tampa, by contrast, had built its dynasty on cool precision: a team that mixed speed, skill and structure to win back-to-back Cups in 2020 and 2021. To Lightning fans, Florida’s rise represented something else: the triumph of cynicism, of hockey as provocation rather than craft.
The long-simmering tensions finally exploded in April’s postseason meeting. When Hagel flattened Barkov with what looked like a clean shoulder check – a hockey play at playoff speed gone wrong – the officials ruled it illegal because Barkov hadn’t touched the puck. Hagel was slapped with a one-game suspension. The next night Ekblad, who’d already served a lengthy ban earlier in the season for performance-enhancing drugs, hunted him down and delivered a full-force shot to the head, concussing him – a retaliatory hit that earned just two games. Florida went on to win the series and their second straight Cup, while Tampa were left muttering about double standards.
So when Greer targeted Hagel again – during a meaningless September preseason game, no less – the Lightning saw red. Coach Jon Cooper rested his stars and called up six players from the minors – two known enforcers among them – to ice a full lineup without exposing his smaller, skilled forwards. Within minutes, 32-year-old bruiser Scott Sabourin leveled Ekblad with a single punch that dropped him to his knees. From there the night descended into absurdity: brawls after nearly every whistle, fights in the penalty box, more than 300 combined penalty minutes and so many ejections that both teams ended with nine skaters. At one point, Florida’s Niko Mikkola even picked up an assist despite having been sent off minutes earlier. It’s not every night an ejected player somehow helps to extend an 8-0 lead before anyone notices.
The next day, the discipline meted out by the NHL’s department of player safety came down squarely on Tampa. Six players fined, two suspended, the organization docked $100,000 and Cooper fined another $25,000. Florida’s Greer kept his token $2,000 fine. The perception was plain as day: the Panthers could do no wrong. And that sense of impunity is what has turned a once-anodyne cross-state rivalry into something much darker: a microcosm of how the NHL still protects its insiders and punishes its critics.
That defiance fits neatly with the Panthers’ broader identity. Under owner Vincent Viola – a billionaire financier and one-time Donald Trump nominee for secretary of the army – the franchise has cultivated an overtly Maga aesthetic. After their first Cup win, team executives proudly visited Trump at the White House, presenting him with a custom “45–47” jersey. Viola’s longtime business partner and minority owner Douglas Cifu, the Panthers’ vice-chairman and alternate governor, also runs Virtu Financial, the high-frequency trading firm he co-founded with Viola. In May, Cifu was suspended indefinitely by the NHL after an inflammatory social-media exchange with a Canadian fan where he invoked the Israel-Palestine conflict and Trump’s 51st state taunts, a move that did little to distance the team from its hard-right image.
Across the state, the Lightning’s ownership has taken the opposite tack: removing a Robert E Lee statue from downtown Tampa, supporting diversity initiatives and hosting some of the league’s most inclusive heritage nights.
In miniature, the Battle of Florida now mirrors the United States itself: grievance and aggression on one side, progressive branding on the other, both locked in a fight over what the sport, and the country, should be.
The irony is that all this has unfolded during what’s meant to be the NHL’s modern age of enlightenment. League executives boast about player safety and mental-health awareness, and evolving beyond the blood-and-guts spectacle of decades past. Yet its disciplinary machinery still operates with the opaque impunity of an old boys’ club. When New York Rangers owner James Dolan semi-publicly condemned the league’s refusal to suspend Washington’s Tom Wilson in 2021, the NHL didn’t revisit the call; it fined the team $250,000 for daring to question it. Commissioner Gary Bettman scolded the Rangers for “demeaning” a league executive and declared such criticism “unacceptable”. The message was clear enough: silence is rewarded, dissent is punished and the culture that enables violence is the one most fiercely protected.
This time, though, the silence has cracked. Around the league, executives and players are said to be quietly rooting for Tampa – not because they condone vigilante justice, but because they recognize the futility of appealing to a system stacked against them. The Panthers may have won the Stanley Cup for two years running, but they’ve also become the embodiment of a league that rewards swagger and punishes accountability.
That the NHL’s biggest controversy of the year erupted before a single regular-season game had been played says it all. The sport that keeps promising to modernize still can’t stop celebrating its own anarchy: a league where power, not principle, decides who gets away with what – and who gets left bleeding on the ice.
The Edmonton Oilers were heading into the 2025-26 with a sense of calm. That might surprise some, considering the team was coming off two consecutive Finals losses. Still, the team approached a new season relaxed.
Perhaps they were too relaxed, at least after getting out to a 3-0 lead.
As expected, the narrative is one game at a time. Having said that, the Oilers are often guilty of not playing a full 60 minutes, and they were guilty of it again on Wednesday as their three-goal lead turned into a 3-3 tie, then a loss in a shootout.
The Stanley Cup isn't won in October. Still, a hot start is also being talked about a lot inside the dressing room, and that should have started with a victory over the Calgary Flames in Game 1 of the regular season.
Goaltender Stuart Skinner took responsibility for the score being what it was. "I just had to make a quicker decision," he said when trying to explain the gaffe on the third goal for Calgary that tied the game. "The game happens fast down there, and there was just kind of a miscommunication and I was slow to react...
Head coach Kris Knoblauch wasn't ready to blame Skinner alone. "Turnovers," he said when asked what happened. "As soon as we made it 3-0, we got really sloppy with the puck. Before that, I thought we were outstanding with it. That was the turning point right there."
The Game Action
Ike Howard and David Tomasek took their "rookie" laps, seeing as it was the first game in the NHL for both players.
The first period started a bit slowly, with both sides feeling each other out. It wasn't until a delay of game penalty on Morgan Frost that things got interesting. The Oilers made quick work of the power play as Connor McDavid passed down low to Leon Draisaitl, who hit Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in front for the goal.
Tomasek took a minor for tripping at 11:04. The Oilers killed it off, with McDavid and Draisaitl getting some time on the second penalty-killing unit.
On the Oilers' second goal, Andrew Mangiapane made an outstanding play as he got tangled up near the blue line. He did a great job staying onside, and McDavid got him with a pass, and he roofed a wrist shot past Dustin Wolf.
McDavid already had two points on the night. Nugent-Hopkins got the second assist, giving him two points in the first.
The second started much like the first, a little slowly. Things picked up around five minutes in. Skinner made a couple of solid saves, and Noah Philp got a solid chance on goal.
The Oilers started buzzing and the top line hemmed Calgary in, forcing them to take a penalty. Adam Klapka got two minutes for hooking.
The Oilers scored on the power play again, this time it was Nugent-Hopkins to Tomasek who made a sweet pass between Wolf's legs and right to Draisaitl. With that, it was a 3-0 lead and the game looked in hand for the Oilers.
With the goal, Draisaitl had potted his 400th in the NHL.
Congrats to Leon Draisaitl on 400 career goals! 🚨 #NHLFaceOff
The Flames got on the board as Matvei Gridin spun and fired a puck it into the slot. It bounced off Philp and got past Skinner.
On the second Flames goal, Tomasek got called for a high-sticking penalty. The Flames didn't take long to score on the power play, getting a goal off a questionable Connor Zary high stick. The officials reviewed the goal and determined that it was a good goal.
Just like that the lead was cut to 3-2.
In the third period, Skinner misplayed a dump-in and got his signals crossed with Evan Bouchard. Blake Coleman got credit for the goal, and it was 3-3.
Regulation ended at three goals each. In overtime, there were no goals, but some interesting opportunities. Ultimately, the game went into a shootout that took eight rounds to declare a winner. Nazem Kadri scored to give Calgary a 4-3 win.
The Notables for the Oilers:
Dustin Wolf was excellent for the Flames in goal.
Andrew Mangiapane scored his first as an Oiler and the shot was incredible.
Tomasek had a pretty assist on the power play goal by Draisaitl, who had his 400th point. Draisaitl's shootout goal was one of the prettiest we'll see this season.
Stuart Skinner flubbed the third goal, but he was solid otherwise
The Trent Frederic experiment on the top line may not have a long shelf life. It was a great mix in one preseason game, but the trio has struggled a bit beyond that. Frederic was pulled off that line late in the game, with Mangiapane getting a bump up.
The Los Angeles Kings suffered an embarrassing loss last night in their season opener against the Colorado Avalanche.
Every aspect played out last night on the ice, both offensively and especially on defense; Los Angeles looked very weak and out of it. So, coming into a back-to-back, the Kings were looking to avoid a 0-2 start desperately.
But, tonight, against another Western Conference contender in the Vegas Golden Knights, who introduced Mitch Marner and recently signed Jack Eichel to an 8-year extension, Los Angeles looked very good early on, until their power play defense and penalties let them down, ending in a high-scoring thriller with the Kings scrapping by a 6-5 win.
After the tripping call was made on Golden Knights center William Karlsson, who gave the Kings a power play opportunity.
The Kings responded with a 1-0 lead in Vegas, capitalizing on the power play opportunity. Andrei Kuzmenko buried the goal five minutes into the period off the assist from Anze Kopitar.
Vegas struggled to generate any goals against Anton Forsberg under the net, stopping every shot that came at him.
The Golden Knights' best look came when Quinton Byfield was called for that unsportsmanlike conduct midway through the first period, but Los Angeles remained strong and didn’t let it get in their heads like last night.
Just a few minutes later, Quinton Byfield extended the lead with an unassisted goal, giving LA a 2-0 lead. Despite Vegas having control of the puck for most of the possession and winning faceoffs, Los Angeles stayed ready and strong on the ice.
The period ended with the Kings holding a 2-0 lead, energized by their early intensity on both defense and offense, which enabled them to take an early lead. However, Vegas remained a threat heading into the second period despite trailing.
Second Period: Golden Knights Dominate the Power Play
The Kings extended their lead to 3-1 early in the second period against the Vegas Golden Knights. Joel Armia put up his first goal as the newly acquired Los Angeles King from the middle of the ice against a solid amount of traffic in front of him.
Vegas managed to get back in the game in the second period, scoring three goals, including one by Pavel Dorofeyev on the power play and a fast break earlier in the period, to tie the game 3-3.
One glaring weakness in the Kings' last two games was their power play defense and ability to execute fast break plays. The defense just doesn’t look strong in the closing moments when the game starts to get tight and close, reminiscent of the choke job against the Oilers in the last playoffs, when they blew a 2-0 series lead.
The Golden Knights were one of the best power plays ever, finishing second in the NHL, and in this game, they looked much better when they were in the power play, whipping the puck around the zone against what should be a Penalty kill.
This period wasn’t a good one for the Kings. From what looked like a commanding 3-1 lead and a different team committed to bouncing back from the ugly loss at home last night, they got outplayed entirely by one man on the other side of the ice in one period.
Third Period: Kings Battle Back
The third period was looking like it was going to be a big meltdown for the Kings, with another disappointing loss and back-to-back embarrassing games.
Early in the third period, the Golden Knights were dominating the puck and scoring off the Kings' foolish penalties, but were getting outplayed in the power play, trailing 3-5 early in the period.
The story of the game was looking like the Kings were repeating the same old things from last season, blowing leads and failing to capitalize on close, competitive games that came down to the wire.
However, Los Angeles battled back thanks to Trevor Moore and Brandt Clarke, both of whom notched a goal to tie the game 5-5, sending it to overtime.
Clarke, Byfield, and Kuzmenko were especially impressive, showcasing their toughness and grit, executing in the big moments when called upon.
All three players were reliable for the Kings in the clutch and, in overtime, gave some big minutes on the ice to help scrape by the Golden Knights.
In overtime, LA squeaked by with a 6-5 win in a much-needed game that was theirs for the taking all game. It certainly would’ve been a horrible loss for the Kings, given the lead they had and how poorly their defense performed against the Golden Knights' offense for the rest of the game.
But give credit to the Kings' ability to respond to adversity and capitalize on key moments that will be crucial as they continue their push for a Stanley Cup.
Fans can look forward to more exciting matchups as the Kings aim to build their momentum against Winnipeg on Saturday, Oct 11 at 1:30 p.m. EST.
Full disclosure: the Buffalo Sabres aren't particularly interested in the NHL's individual awards. But who's kidding who -- you always like to perform well, and that's somthing the league de facto acknowledges by handing out end-of-season honours.
But where are the true individual award front-runners in Buffalo? There are some outside possibilities for Tage Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin to win the Hart Trophy, and for Dahlin to also take home the Norris Trophy as the league's top defenseman.
After that, there's pretty much no other Sabres players who will be in the mix for an individual award this coming season. For instance, there's not going to be a Vezina Trophy-winner from the Sabres. Their small army of goaltending options -- including Ukko-Peka Luukonen, Alex Lyon, veteran Alexandar Georgiev -- and in net does not inspire you to imagine Buffalo will have the best netminder in the league this season.
Meanwhile, the Sabres don't have a true front-runner to win the Calder Trophy as the league'stop rookie. And imagining Buffalo will have a leader in the Art Ross Trophy is stretching the bounds of credulity. This Sabres team probably won't have a player who proves they're a top-10 talent in the league, and that will be reflected in the league's individuals.
In a best-case scenario, Thompson will raise the bar for himself and begin challenging in the Maurice 'Rocket' Richard race as the best goal-scorer in the game. Toronto Maple Leafs star center Auston Matthews will be the front-runner to win this year's goal-scoring race, but if Thompson can score 50 goals and 100 points, the Sabres are going to be thrilled.
That said, Buffalo isn't going to win the Jim Gregory Award as the best GM in the game, and Lindy Ruff isn't going to win the Jack Adams Award as the NHL's best coach. It's possible in theory both Ruff and GM Kevyn Adams find ways to get the Sabres into the post-season, but is it probable? No, this writer believes Buffalo will struggle to climb the ladder, both in an individual manner and as a group.
And this writer believes the Sabres won't make the playoffs -- leading to be changes next summer or sooner. Adams and Ruff have their future wrapped up with one another, and there's no question their lack of success running the Sabres will keep them in job limbo at this time next year.
When you look at the league's top teams, you see that most, if not all teams that are high-end playoff teams have elite players who contend for individual awards all season long. And the Sabres' lack of high-end, superstar performances is one of the reasons Buffalo is looking like a long-shot of making it into the playoffs.
It's accurate that the Sabres do have talent -- they just don't have enough of it. And somehow, some way, they need to figure out a way to squeeze into the playoffs by any means neccessary.
Jack Roslovic, one of the top NHL UFAs left, signed a one-year contract with the Edmonton Oilers late Wednesday.
The news of the $1.5-million deal came during the Oilers' season opener against the Calgary Flames.
Roslovic, 28, recorded 22 goals and 17 assists for 39 points in 81 games with the Carolina Hurricanes last year. He added another goal and three assists in nine playoff games. He's had two 22-goal seasons and passed 40 points twice in parts of nine NHL seasons.
The center, who can also play right wing, had a one-year, $2.8-million contract last season, so his cap hit is $1.3 million less on his new deal. Before that, he had a two-year contract with a $4-million cap hit.
Edmonton is Roslovic's fifth NHL team and fourth in the past three seasons. The Winnipeg Jets drafted him 25th overall in 2015. The Columbus Blue Jackets traded for him and Patrik Laine in January 2021. In 2023-24, the New York Rangers acquired Roslovic at the NHL trade deadline, and he signed with Carolina that summer.
In 526 career games, Roslovic has 102 goals, 158 assists and 260 points while averaging 14:12 of ice time. He also has three goals and 17 points in 45 playoff games, including eight points in 16 games during the Rangers' run to the Eastern Conference final in 2024.
With Roslovic, the Oilers are now over the salary cap ceiling by about $2.8 million, according to PuckPedia. With left winger Zach Hyman on long-term injured reserve for at least October, the Oilers can exceed the cap ceiling by up to Hyman's $5.5-million cap hit.
Edmonton recalled forwards David Tomasek and Isaac Howard on Tuesday. Tomasek has a $1.2-million cap hit, while Howard's is $950,000. Those two, along with Matthew Savoie ($886,666), are exempt from waivers in case the Oilers want to avoid the waiver wire when clearing cap space upon Hyman's return. Noah Philp is also on the Oilers' roster, and he's on a two-way contract that typically goes to players in the system.
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There are a lot of new faces populating the Pittsburgh Penguins' roster this season, especially on the left side of the Penguins' blue line.
And one of those players is settling into his role quite nicely so far - which could be revelation for the Penguins and their top blueliner.
Defenseman Parker Wotherspoon - who signed a two-year, $2 million deal this summer - has been paired with Erik Karlsson since the beginning of training camp, and the early returns on the Penguins' new top pairing have been promising.
Wotherspoon, 28, was selected in the fourth round (112th overall) by the New York Islanders in 2015, and he spent the last two seasons with the Boston Bruins. In 55 games last season, the 6-foot-1, 190-pound defenseman registered one goal and seven points to go along with 75 hits.
But the beauty in Wotherspoon's game is in its simplicity. The steady, stay-at-home blueliner plays such a low-event style of hockey that lies in stark contrast to his partner, who is one of the most high-event players in the league.
And maybe that contrast is why the pairing has worked well so far - and why they showed so well in the Penguins' season-opening 3-0 shutout win against the New York Rangers on Tuesday.
"I thought we played good," Wotherspoon said. "I thought we moved the puck pretty well, got up ice, defended well. I don't think we spent too much time in our d-zone, so, it was a good start. There's still some things to grow on. It's a long season, but I think we did a good job handling it for the most part.
"He's such a good player. It makes it easier to just get him the rock, and he'll make a good play. So, it's been good."
Karlsson, 35, is and has been a good player for a very long time. And that's why the Penguins acquired him in the summer of 2023 - following a 101-point Norris-winning campaign - but it's been a bit of a mixed bag ever since.
It's not easy to tandem with a high-risk offensive talent like Karlsson. He requires a partner who is almost entirely risk-averse, and that partner could very well be Wotherspoon. Karlsson is at his best when he's activating and noticeable, and Wotherspoon is at his best when he's virtually unnoticeable.
And that's what came to fruition on Tuesday. Setting aside a second-period shift that included a turnover from each of them, the pairing played some really good hockey. They had a 62.1 percent expected goals share, and they allowed only two high-danger chances against the entire night.
Wotherspoon is aware of what his role is and what the strengths of his game are. And he wants to use those strengths to allow Karlsson to play to his own - which is something that he's still working on.
"Just watching him in the o-zone, he's got his head up, he's looking for a screen... he's seeing the play come before it even happens," Wotherspoon said. "That's one thing I've got to get a little bit better at... Just get that head up, make those plays, wait for it to come, and just have that patience on the blue line like he does with the puck. He's so phenomenal with it."
Of course, it's still very early, and a lot can happen during the long season. But, for now, the Penguins' new top pairing - featuring two players who couldn't be more different - looks as though it could be a pretty formidable one.
And Karlsson hopes that he and his newfound defense partner can continue to get better and better.
"I think it's been good," Karlsson said. "He's a good skater, a good puck-mover, and he's got some experience. So, hopefully, we can continue to find some chemistry."
Pittsburgh Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin was one of the team's best players on Tuesday night, notching two assists in their 3-0 win over the New York Rangers.
His skating was also top-notch, and he had good chemistry with Anthony Mantha and Justin Brazeau. He set up Brazeau's first goal by making a nice little play off a faceoff before Brazeau roofed a puck past Rangers star goaltender Igor Shesterkin.
He also got the primary assists on Brazeau's second goal, an empty-netter that iced the game late in the third period before Blake Lizotte made it 3-0.
Those two assists got Malkin's all-time point total up to 1,348, which ranks 31st in NHL history. He is one point away from tying Mats Sundin for 30th all-time and two away from passing him.
Malkin will have the opportunity to pass other NHL legends on the NHL's all-time points list this year, including Brendan Shanahan, Guy Lafleur, and even Mike Modano.
His first opportunity to break into the top 30 will be on Thursday when the Penguins play the New York Islanders inside PPG Paints Arena for the home opener.
And one of the rookies made history in a different way as well.
19-year-old defenseman Harrison Brunicke - one of the Penguins' top prospects - became the first skater born in South Africa to play in an NHL game. The only other player in NHL history from South Africa to take the ice was goaltender Olaf Kolzig, who was the longtime netminder for the Washington Capitals in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Harrison Brunicke makes history on opening night! 🇿🇦 #NHLFaceOff
The 6-foot-3, 201-pound rookie blueliner, like Kolzig, was born in Johannesburg, RSA. Brunicke's parents, Kim and Dean, grew up in South Africa and relocated to Canada when Brunicke was young. He picked up hockey once they moved, and the rest is history.
Brunicke - selected 44th overall by the Penguins in 2024 - was invited to Team Canada's World Junior camp last season, but a broken wrist sustained last November kept him from participating and, ultimately, representing Canada at the 2025 World Junior Championship. He and Ben Kindel, 18, both made the Penguins' NHL roster out of training camp and debuted in Tuesday's 3-0 win over the New York Rangers, and Brunicke is fighting to stick around the NHL for good with the big club.
In 41 games for the Kamloops Blazers of the WHL last season, Brunicke registered five goals and 30 points.
Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Arturs Silovs got the nod over Tristan Jarry for Tuesday's opening-night game against the New York Rangers and didn't disappoint.
Silovs, who was acquired from the Vancouver Canucks for forward Chase Stillman and a 2027 fourth-round pick in July, stopped all 25 shots he faced in the Penguins' 3-0 shutout victory over the Rangers. His glove-hand looked a little shaky at the start of the game, but once he settled in, it was smooth sailing the rest of the way, saving 2.5 goals above expected.
The decision to start Silovs came as a little bit of a surprise since Jarry was the slight favorite to start going into the game, but head coach Dan Muse wanted to reward Silovs for his strong training camp and preseason. Silovs responded with a great effort and became the second goalie in franchise history to pitch a shutout in his first start with the team. It was also his first career regular-season shutout in the NHL.
Silovs was over the moon about his performance during a post-game interview with SportsNet Pittsburgh's Hailey Hunter.
"I mean, it's great. Guys competed, so many great blocks, great individual effort," Silovs said. "You know, it's like team effort, and I felt comfortable. The guys did a good job, and the result showed us."
Muse spoke about Silovs after Wednesday's practice and was also impressed with his performance during Tuesday's game.
"He showed it yesterday," Muse said. "He’s gained some really good experiences in his career so far, and he’s obviously still a relatively young guy, and I think those things all stack up. To have that run that he had last year and then to have the playoffs before, and you also look at some of the different experiences that he has had in international play, he's not that old. So, he's got all these things already, and you own those now. You own those experiences and you carry them with you."
"So, now you go into a new experience there to get the game one start on the road at Madison Square Garden. I thought you saw that poise, and he made some big saves early, too. I always feel like with guys, that sometimes that can help somebody into a game a little bit. It's not by design that we were killing a penalty with a minute to go, but those things happen. The guys did a great job, but he had to come up there with some saves, and I thought he was really able to build off that start and obviously carry it through the entire game."
Silovs has more than earned the start for Thursday's home-opener against the New York Islanders, and if he also plays well in that game (assuming Muse gives him the nod), he could also start Saturday's game against the Rangers at home. It would send a message to Jarry that the 1A goaltender spot is wide open this season.
Jarry came into training camp and the preseason as a slight favorite for that spot, but after giving up three goals on 19 shots during the Penguins' last preseason game against the Buffalo Sabres, Muse opted to go with Silovs, who was the second-best goaltender during camp.
He came into camp riding a lot of momentum from last season, guiding the AHL's Abbotsford Canucks to the Calder Cup. He was the MVP of the Calder Cup Playoffs, winning 16 games and finishing with a 2.01 goals against average and a .931 save percentage. Before that, he started for the Canucks in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs and helped them reach Game 7 of the second round against the Edmonton Oilers, but they ultimately fell.
Silovs has the talent, but he just has to bring it on a consistent basis. Tuesday was a good first step in that direction.
Puck drop for Thursday's home-opener against the Islanders will be at 7 p.m. ET on SportsNet Pittsburgh. The Penguins lost three of the four meetings against them last year and have lost seven of their last 10 against them overall.
When Pittsburgh Penguins' winger Rickard Rakell came into training camp this season, he was doing it on the back of a career year that saw him register 35 goals and 70 points.
More than likely, he expected to be seeing more time alongside Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin and a solidified role on the power play. What he probably did not expect, however, was to be put into a somewhat unfamiliar role.
Since the beginning of camp, Rakell has regularly been deployed on the Penguins' penalty kill unit, which is something he hasn't done a lot over the course of his 14-year NHL career. According to MoneyPuck, going into this season, Rakell had only played 84 total minutes shorthanded, with 67 of those minutes being compiled over two consecutive seasons from 2018-20 with the Anaheim Ducks.
Until Tuesday's season-opening 3-0 win against the New York Rangers, Rakell had not recorded a minute of shorthanded regular season ice time with the Penguins. It may be pretty uncharted territory for the 32-year-old veteran, but he feels like it's going pretty well so far.
"I mean, so far, I haven't been on for a goal yet," Rakell smiled. "So, obviously, I feel good about that."
Part of new head coach Dan Muse's philosophy with the penalty kill seems to be using regular power play forwards on the units, which includes guys like Rakell and Bryan Rust, who is currently out with an upper-body injury but skated with the team Wednesday. Muse believes that using power play players in shorthanded situations can be advantageous for a lot of reasons - especially since there is a factor of predictability for them.
Rakell agrees with that assessment.
"I've played on the power play for a long time," Rakell said. "You see some things on the ice, and when I'm studying to get better on the power play, I look at different players, and then I know what their habits are going to be. So, hopefully, that will give me a chance to make some reads and use my hockey sense to disrupt their plays and, hopefully, create something off of that. Just take it as it goes, I guess."
Another thing it seems like the Penguins are emphasizing on the penalty kill this season - at least, based off of the early returns from the pre-season and from game one - is that they want to pressure the opposing power play units a bit aggressively to try to get them out of structure - which tends to open up chances the other way.
And using players like Rakell - who are familiar with the inner workings and structural components of a power play - on the penalty kill should lend to teams making a few more mistakes here and there and opening up opportunities to force turnovers.
"I think that's a big part of it," Rakell said. "You know where the dangerous areas are, and then, just go from there. I know that a lot of things can happen. The power plays are usually not in structure as soon as you turn the puck over, and hopefully, we can start creating chances the other way with that. Like, not cheat for offense on the PK, but throughout the year, there could be some chances going the other way."
And this line of thinking - as mentioned before - is exactly what makes Muse want to put intelligent power play players like Rakell on the penalty kill.
"We view him as a responsible player, a player that can be trusted on the defensive side," Muse said during the pre-season. "You get a player like him, he's got a little bit of time there on the penalty kill... [it's] good to see. Sometimes, players like him that have spent a lot of time on the power play, they think like power play players. So, they're able to anticipate plays really well. You combine that with his defensive awareness, really good stick... it's something that we want to see. So, we're going to continue to look at that."
Of course, it's early, and there is plenty of time for situations to evolve. More responsibility in more situations probably also means a slight uptick in ice time for Rakell throughout the season, which, in theory, could be a tiny adjustment for a player who is already near the top of the minutes chart among forwards.
But, it's not something Rakell has noticed up to this point, and given how Muse has split ice time between the lines pretty evenly through the pre-season and through the season opener, it may not pose much of an issue at all.
Regardless of what happens, though, Rakell is embracing the chance to play a new role for the Penguins - even if the situation ends up changing a bit when that certain teammate in a similar position returns to play.
"It's kind of just an idea that came up," Rakell said. "Rusty's out of the lineup. So, perhaps this is my opportunity."
There has never been a player in the history of the Detroit Red Wings, who are entering their centennial campaign in the NHL, taller than the Swedish-born Elmer Soderblom.
For the second time in his professional career, the towering 6'8" forward made the cut for the Red Wings out of Training Camp, and this time, he aims to stay in the NHL for good.
Ironically, when Soderblom initially made the Red Wings' roster in October 2022, they began the new season against the Montreal Canadiens, the same opponent they'll begin this campaign against on Thursday.
Soderblom tallied his first career goal early in the third period of that game, not only registering a career milestone with his parents in the stands but also breaking what was a scoreless tie that ultimately finished as a 3-0 Red Wings victory.
— FanDuel Sports Network Detroit (@FanDuelSN_DET) October 15, 2022
The camera repeatedly panned to Soderblom's parents, who were visiting from Sweden and were overjoyed, even getting high fives from Kevin Larkin, Dylan's father.
For his efforts, he was awarded the game's first star of the night.
"It was my first game, NHL debut, it was a very special night," Soderblom said as he looked back on his debut and first goal three years ago. "It was very fun and exciting, and a dream come true. I just remember good stuff from that night."
Soderblom, whom the Red Wings selected in the sixth round (159th overall) of the 2019 Draft, skated in 21 games for the Red Wings that season before being returned back to the Grand Rapids Griffins, where he remained until being called back up to the team last season. He ultimately played in 26 games, scoring four goals while adding another seven assists.
Soderblom has demonstrated an offensive touch before in his career, as he led Frölunda HC J20 in scoring with 29 goals and 26 assists in the 2019-20 campaign. To date, his highest scoring season of professional hockey came with the Griffins in 2023-24, registering 13 goals with 16 assists in 61 games played.
During the offseason, Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman saw fit to extend Soderblom for another two seasons with a $1.125 million cap hit, and he will likely skate on the team's fourth line to begin the season with Michael Rasmussen and newcomer Mason Appleton.
In what will be his second opportunity to cement his place in the lineup after making the team out of Training Camp, Soderblom is already envisioning not only remaining consistent in his performance but also using his notable stature to his advantage.
"I want to show that I can play good at this level and keep improving, and just become a better player. My goal is to keep being consistent and show what I can do," he said.
"I've learned to be more consistent and use my size to my advantage and play with my size, and still use my hands and shot," he continued. "I feel like I've found a good combination and found a way to be consistent."
As far as knowing no player out of the nearly 1,400 men who have suited up for the Red Wings over the last 100 years has stood taller than he does, it’s not something that’s top of mind for Soderblom - but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t think it’s an interesting reality.
"A couple times, it's fun," he said with a grin when asked if he's ever pondered his status as the tallest player in team history. "Not that I think too much of it, but it's a fun fact."
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