Gorton and Kent Hughes have worked very well as a duo since
they were hired, and they’ve often been referred to as HuGo by the fans. Given
how satisfied the fandom has been with this past season and the surprise
qualification to the playoffs, it’s hardly surprising that people would rather
not lose the executive vice president of hockey operations.
Less than two hours after Staple reported the information,
TSN Insider Pierre LeBrun took to X to say that he understood the Canadiens had
told the Islanders that Gorton was in Montreal to stay.
While fans were panicking left, right, and center, RG.org’s
Marco D’Amico was the voice of reason, explaining that it was normal for teams
to ask, but it didn’t mean the Canadiens would grant the request or that Gorton
even wanted to go.
In his post-season press availability, Gorton mentioned jokingly
that his son had reminded him earlier that day that he had been fired by the
Rangers four years ago. While he can laugh about it now, it’s easy to imagine
how gutted he must have been when he wasn’t allowed to see the New York Rangers’
rebuild through.
He got another chance with the Canadiens, and it’s hard to
imagine him walking out with some unfinished business. The team is in a much
better state today than it was when he was first hired, and the impact Lane
Hutson, one of the products of his first draft, has had this season is a big
win for the organization and HuGo.
Given what we’ve seen from Ivan Demidov in a small sample so
far, it’s likely that he, too, will make the duo look good next season, and who
knows, perhaps David Reinbacher will as well if he manages to remain healthy.
You can relax, Canadiens fans. Gorton is not going anywhere,
not until he’s accomplished the goal he’s given himself or is shown the door,
at least. Neither option is likely to happen overnight.
Canadiens stories, analysis, breaking news, and more! Tap the star to add us to your favorites on Google News, never to miss a story.
A Tampere native, Järventie is returning to his hometown after
spending the past four seasons in North America in the Ottawa
Senators and Edmonton
Oilers organizations.
“Really good feeling – it’s nice to be
home,” Järventie is quoted on the Tappara website. “It’s
always been a dream to play together with my brother, so this is a
great opportunity to make that dream come true.”
Roby’s younger brother Emil, 20, was a seventh-round pick of the
Pittsburgh
Penguins in 2023. The two brothers are actually products of rival
club Ilves but Emil transferred to Tappara last season, where he
split time between the club’s Liiga and top junior teams. This will
be Roby’s first tour of duty with Tappara. Due to their age
difference, this will be the first time the brothers have played
together on the same team.
Roby Järventie was chosen in the second round, 33rd overall, by
Ottawa in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft. He then went to North America
late in the pandemic-delayed 2021 season to play for the AHL’s
Belleville Senators, recording three points in four games.
In the summer of 2024, he
was traded to Edmonton. Järventie missed training camp after
another knee surgery but only managed to play in two AHL games with
the Bakersfield Condors in November before re-injuring his knee and
has not played since.
According to an
Ilta-Sanomat article in March, Järventie’s
rehab has been going well and he is expected to be ready for the
start of training camp in late summer with Tappara.
In addition to the Järventie brothers, Tappara has also signed
veteran defenseman Jyrki Jokipakka, who played 150 NHL games for the
Dallas Stars and Calgary Flames. The club also has Calgary prospect
Eetu Tuola and Columbus Blue Jackets prospect Oiva Keskinen under
contract for 2025-26.
Welcome to The Hockey News Playoff Frenzy Live, streaming nightly during the NHL's Stanley Cup playoffs.
After the big game of the night, our experts go live to react to the match that was, break down the key moments and storylines and read your opinions.
On tonight's show, Katie Gaus, Michael Augello and Ryan Henkel react to the Carolina Hurricanes beating the Washington Capitals 2-1 in overtime to take a 1-0 series lead.
The Edmonton Oilers are seeking retribution for their second-round series loss to the Vegas Golden Knights two years ago. They have a chance to exorcise their playoff demons on Tuesday night.
Calvin Pickard and Adin Hill are the expected starters for tonight's game. Alex Pietrangelo will not suit up for Game 1.
This story will be updated throughout the game. Please bookmark this page and refresh it regularly to get the latest updates on what is happening in Game 1. Also, be sure to join the conversation in the comments section below.
LAS VEGAS -- Golden Knights defenseman Alex Pietrangelo did not take the ice for pregame warmups before Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals against the Edmonton Oilers.
Pietrangelo played in all six games against the Minnesota Wild in the first round, tallying three points (1 goal, 2 assists) over the first three games.
Coach Bruce Cassidy did not indicate after the morning skate that Pietrangelo could miss the game.
The team, however, tweeted that he is out with an illness.
Update: Alex Pietrangelo is out of tonight’s game due to an illness. #VegasBorn
— y-Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) May 7, 2025
Kaedan Korczak, who played in 40 games during the regular season, was paired with Nic Hague during warmups and will make his playoff debut. Korczak had 10 points, all assists, for the Vegas during the regular season.
Alex Pietrangelo is not on the ice for warm ups. Korczak skated in his place.
Coach Jim Hiller guided the Kings to victories in the first two games of the first-round playoff series against the Oilers, who would go on to win the next four. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
A day after parting ways with his general manager, Kings president Luc Robitaille expressed confidence in his head coach, saying he expected Jim Hiller would be back with the team next season. Yet the final decision, he added, would be with the new GM.
“Your general manager, you want to give him the freedom. You don't want to lock up a new person that's coming in,” he said. “But the record of what Jimmy's done this year is really, really good. It would be really hard for any GM to say, ‘Well, this guy shouldn’t come back.’
“I think Jimmy is a great coach and I fully think that this guy's coming back, for sure.”
In his first full season as an NHL coach, Hiller equaled team bests for wins (48) and points (105) and broke the record for home wins (31). But he had made several crucial mistakes in the playoffs that hastened the team’s exit, leading to another record: The Kings have gone a franchise-worst 11 seasons without winning a postseason series.
Blake was general manager for eight of those seasons. Yet those playoff failures weren’t necessarily the trigger that led to his departure. Robitaille devoted most of a 28-minute meeting with the media Tuesday to his former general manager, saying the two have been discussing Blake’s future with the Kings for most of the last six months.
“We met on over the weekend, we took a couple days to go over the season and go over everything, what happened in the playoffs and so forth,” Robitaille said. “At one point we both realized and agreed that it was time to probably bring a new voice, just to get us to that next level.”
Robitaille and Blake, both Hall of Fame players, were teammates with the Kings and worked together in the front office for more than a decade. That made the mutual decision for Blake and the team to part ways especially difficult, Robitaille said.
“It's never easy because there's a friendship part,” he said. “He's going to leave a big hole. So it's a hard thing. It’s been a hard weekend.”
Robitaille said the search for a new general manager has already begun and the process will be wide open, with the team considering candidates both inside and outside the organization.
“We don't have a timeline, but obviously we understand the urgency,” Robitaille said. “We know what's coming up.”
Once hired, the new general manager will start the job with a lengthy to-do list. Decisions will have to be made regarding a number of players, starting with defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov, who led the team in minutes played. He is an unrestricted free agent, as are forwards Andrei Kuzmenko, Tanner Jeannot and Trevor Lewis.
Gavrikov, who made $5.875 million this season, is due for a raise and is Kuzmenko, who came over from Philadelphia at the trade deadline and immediately energized the Kings’ power play. Kuzmenko, 29, made $2.75 million in the final year of his contract.
Defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov (center), celebating after scoring a goal with Adrian Kempe (9) and defenseman Mikey Anderson, is one of multiple free agents with whom the Kings have offered to begin contract negotiations. (Alex Gallardo/AP)
In addition, winger Alex Laferriere is a restricted free agent and forward Adrian Kempe is extension-eligible July 1. Robitaille said the team has already reached out to some of those players and offered to begin negotiations.
The team will have money to spend since the NHL salary cap will rise significantly over the next three years, going from $88 million this season to $113.5 million in 2027-28. Robitaille said the team won’t be afraid to spend that money.
“We're committing to win,” he said. “If you want to win in this league, usually you spend to the cap. But it's not about spending to the cap. It's about being wise, doing the right decision and so forth. We're not just going to throw money, just to throw money. You’ve got to do it right.
“But this team is committed, yeah.”
Robitaille thought the Kings had the the talent to make a deep playoff run this season, especially after they beat Edmonton handily in the first two games of their first-round series. But things took a turn late in Game 3. With the Kings leading late in the third period, Hiller challenged an on-ice call, arguing that the Oilers’ Evander Kane had interfered with goaltender Darcy Kuemper on the score-tying goal. The protest was disallowed, the Oilers were awarded a power play and 10 seconds later they took the lead.
Edmonton would not lose again, eliminating the Kings in the first round for the fourth consecutive season.
Hiller also shortened his bench in the playoffs, overusing a core group of veterans while under-utilizing his bottom forward line and his last two defensemen. As a result, some players were gassed by the end of the series.
“This one hurt big-time,” defenseman Drew Doughty, who leads all skaters in average ice time in the playoffs, told reporters during Monday’s exit interviews. “In past years, I’m not going to say that we could maybe win, but this year, truly, I felt like we were going to win this series.
“Everyone bought into what we were supposed to do. This is the best team we’ve had here in a long, long time. Unfortunately, it didn’t get done.”
Hiller took over as interim coach midway through the 2023-24 season and led the Kings to the postseason — as well as a first-round playoff loss to the Oilers. That earned him the job on a permanent basis, with Blake signing him to signing him to a three-year contract with a fourth-year option last May.
“Jim did a tremendous job,” Robitaille said. “The general manager that's coming in is going to have to make his own decisions and so forth but we had a really good year. It's the best year — equal to, I think, ‘74-75 — in Kings’ history.
“But it's sports and you want to win the last game of the season. That's our goal.”
When the Toronto Maple Leafs signed left winger Max Pacioretty in the fall, he had come to training camp on a professional tryout. There were no guarantees, and there was certainly no small mountain of money (relatively speaking) awaiting him. He was 35 years old when he signed a one-year contract with Toronto worth $873,770, and he turned 36 in November. But there was no assurance he'd be anything but a spare part on a deep Stanley Cup playoff-bound team.
However, and to his credit, Pacioretty gutted things out, overcame in-season injuries, healthy scratches and Toronto's salary cap constraints, and managed to turn into one heck of a playoff contributor for the Maple Leafs. posting four assists and five points in five games. And despite sitting on the sidelines for the Leafs' first two games against the Ottawa Senators in the first round, Pacioretty made the most of his opportunities once he got back in the lineup, scoring the series-winning goal against the Sens, them having a two-point night against the Florida Panthers in Game 1 of the second round.
Why are we telling you this on THN.com's Buffalo Sabres site? Here's why: where are the inspirational stories of Sabres veterans signed on the cheap who turned into difference-makers down the stretch this season? Hard to think of one, right? Sure, winger Jason Zucker turned out to be a solid signing, but he was hardly a bargain-basement player like Pacioretty, given his salary of $5-million this season. No, we're talking about veterans with a proven track record, who the Sabres plucked off the open market to be meaningful contributors without earning more than $1-million.
To ask the question is to answer it: there was no player comparable to Pacioretty for Buffalo this season. And that's another indictment of Sabres management. In a salary cap world, you need to find cheap talent to augment the players who occupy the top spots on your salary pyramid.
That's the challenge that will await Sabres GM Kevyn Adams this off-season. Given that Buffalo's salary cap situation won't allow Adams to go out and splurge on each and every free-agent player he targets, Adams has to find bargain-basement veterans who know how to win and who believe in the Sabres' game-plan to get back into the post-season for the first time in a decade-and-a-half.
Without those type of high-value, low-cost assets, the Sabres are going to struggle again. Because watching Pacioretty succeed in what could be his final season in hockey's top league is a lesson in patience by an NHL team, and a lesson in savvy talent-acquisition.
You have to be happy to see a gutsy player like Pacioretty thrive, and if you're a Leafs fan, you have to be overjoyed that Buds management took a chance on him. It has paid off in spades, and it ought to make Sabres fans jealous.
Until such time as Buffalo brass makes those type of deals, the Sabres will almost assuredly continue to be on the outside of the playoff picture looking in. So the challenge is obvious for Adams this off-season -- identify some proven vets this summer, and convince them to sign on the cheap.
And failure to do so will be a harbinger of disappointments to come.
The Vancouver Canucks are in a complicated situation at the moment with one of their top prospects. While an entry-level contract has been offered to defenceman Tom Willander, the two sides haven't agreed on a deal, with most reports pointing to the inclusion of "Schedule A" bonuses being the issue. This has led to speculation among the fan base that the organization could trade the 20-year-old this off-season.
If the Canucks were to go down the trade route, the most likely return would be a second-line center. With J.T. Miller no longer in Vancouver, the organization needs to find a replacement who can help get back to contender status. While this issue would usually be solved in free agency, there are not many options available this year, which means the Canucks could be stuck overpaying a player after a bidding war.
Trading a top prospect is never easy and often a risky decision. The player acquired may not work out to the level the team wants, or the prospect may take off and become exactly what the original team needed. A good example of this is a trade from 2022 between the LA Kings and the Minnesota Wild, which has turned into an absolute steal for the Wild.
Ahead of the 2022 NHL Entry Draft, the Wild traded defenceman Brock Faber and the 19th overall pick (Liam Öhgren) to the Kings in exchange for Kevin Fiala. Fiala then signed a seven-year contract with LA with an average annual value of $7.875 million. At the time, the trade seemed fair from both sides, as the Kings added a proven goal-scorer while Minnesota acquired two players that could help them in the future.
Flash forward three seasons, and this trade looks like a steal for the Wild. While Fiala has been productive for LA, Faber has developed into one of the top young defensemen in the NHL. In 2024, he was the runner-up for the Calder Trophy, while this season saw Faber average over 25 minutes a night while participating in the 4 Nations Face-Off for Team USA.
As for Öhgren, he also had an impressive season. The 21-year-old recorded 37 points in 41 AHL games, while also dressing for 24 games at the NHL level. As for next season, Öhgren is projected to make the jump full-time to Minnesota to play in their bottom-six.
The Kings-Wild trade is a good example of what could happen if Vancouver elects to move Willander this off-season for a top-six center. While it may work out in the short term, the long-term consequences could be significant. All trades have a level of risk to them, but based on recent history, trading a 20-year-old prospect who looks NHL-ready may not be the best decision for the organization.
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, be sure to leave a comment at the bottom of the page and engage with other passionate fans through our forum.
The top two Metropolitan teams share a brief playoff history, only having met one time prior (in 2019 with the Hurricanes upsetting the Capitals in seven games), but their is plenty of animosity between these two clubs.
Neither team is anticipated to have any lineup changes heading into tonight's tilt, with Frederik Andersen and Logan Thompson the anticipated starters in net.
The #Canes during warmups in D.C., ahead of Game 1 -
This story will be updated throughout the game. Make sure you refresh the page so that you are reading the latest version of the story and be sure to join the conversation in the comment section below.
(17:32) Canes kill off the penalty and Ovechkin immediately takes a slash. Carolina needs the power play to come through here.
(15:32) Hurricanes with a few chances, but Thompson is just giving up no rebounds. Jarvis also hit the post again as the power play expired. Canes now have five shots that have hit the frame.
(10:18)1-1; Rookie Logan Stankoven snipes one top corner after the Canes' forecheck forces a Washington turnover deep in the offensive zone. We have a game here!
(1:50) Hurricanes top line with a really good shift. They need someone to step up here.
(0:00)Caps lead 1-0 / SOG 20-11 CAR
Washington had a good push to start the second period, but Hurricanes have gotten back to their high-pressure game.
Soft goal against on Andersen the difference here.
First Period
(20:00) Martinook-Staal-Jarvis-Orlov-Chatfield-Andersen the starting six for the Hurricanes.
(18:50) Great stick by Burns to deny a Capitals 2-on-1 chance. On the replay, it looks like the pass from Dubois was off.
(16:30) Wilson already making his presence known with a pair of hits on Orlov and Chatfield. Canes have to keep their heads up when he's out on the ice.
(14:00) Hurricanes forecheck really giving Washington troubles early on. SOG are 4-0 and shot attempts are 14-1.
(12:58) Aho takes an offensive zone high-sticking penalty. It was all Carolina early, but now the penalty kill is going to have to come up big.
(10:30) Kill comes through. Capitals had three shots on goal, including an Ovechkin one-timer.
(8:43) Svechnikov and Wilson come together after a whistle. They're each team's biggest agitators, so who'll come out on top?
(8:39) Gostisbehere rings the post.
(5:09) Carolina getting their shot at the power play now as Orlov is yanked down by Duhaime.
(3:10) One shot on goal for the Hurricanes on that man advantage. Washington kept the diamond tight on the kill and are selling out to block shots.
(2:02) Svechnikov off the crossbar.
(0:00) Score: 0-0 / SOG 13-6 CAR
Carolina outchanced Washington 32-6 at 5v5 and the Capitals also had 14 blocked shots in the opening frame.
Hurricanes game is all about wearing down their opponents, so in that regard, that was a good road period.
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In the wake of the Los Angeles Kings’ fourth straight season of losing to the Edmonton Oilers in the first round, you knew something had to give in the Kings’ organization.
Whoever takes over from Blake has some obvious areas to address. Let’s break them down below.
1. The Defense
The Kings allowed the second-fewest goals in the regular season, but that doesn’t matter after what happened in the playoffs.
They didn’t have problems putting the puck in the net against the Oilers, averaging four goals-for per game. But the defense was a disaster, as the Kings allowed 4.50 goals against per game. It certainly wasn’t all the fault of goalie Darcy Kuemper, although his 3.74 GAA and .889 SP didn’t help matters.
You could see the Kings’ defensive struggles all over the place, including their penalty kill, which had an embarrassing 61.5 percent efficiency.
So, with that in mind, it’s obvious what Blake’s successor has to do – namely, tweak the defense corps and make the Kings harder to play against in their own zone against offensive powerhouses. That was their style all season long, but they need to replace a blueliner or two to achieve that style in the playoffs as well.
Brandt Clarke will be a year older, which should help his development, but so will 35-year-old Drew Doughty, who can’t average 24 to 25 minutes a night forever.
Effecting change on the back end won’t be easy, as there aren’t many shutdown blueliners on the UFA front this off-season. Complicating matters is that veteran blueliner Vladislav Gavrikov is a pending UFA. To keep him in the fold, the Kings will have to give him at least the $5.875 million he’s earned this season.
Letting Gavrikov walk shouldn’t be an option for L.A., but it’s the other moves the next Kings GM makes regarding the defense that will probably be the difference between the Kings getting out of the first round next spring or failing once again to follow up on a strong regular season.
A good deal of that will go to bringing back Gavrikov and fellow UFA Andrei Kuzmenko, who turned out to be a solid addition for the Kings. But the Kings also have RFA right winger Alex Laferriere to re-sign, and they need a backup goalie as well.
As you can see, the Kings’ cap space will evaporate quickly unless the new GM clears out some cap space on the trade market.
Let’s say we’re still focused on Los Angeles’ defense: would targeting experienced D-men Ivan Provorov, Brent Burns or Dmitry Orlov make sense for the Kings’ back end? None of them will come cheaply, but the allure of playing in sunny California on a team that, at least on paper, isn’t that far off from a long playoff run, could be the hook that brings in new blood for the Kings’ defense corps.
Regardless of how Blake’s successor spends the Kings’ cap space, they can’t swing and miss on the talent they do bring in. There will be huge pressure on the new GM to hit a home run with the roster changes they make, and right out of the gate, all eyes will be on Blake’s replacement in the roster and the financial choices they make.
In the collapse against the Kings, some of the coaching staff’s choices came under intense scrutiny, including a lost coach’s challenge in Game 3 that had some fans irate. The Hockey News’ Connor Doyle also said Hiller shortened the bench during the series, and their top players looked gassed at times.
But now, with Blake gone, his replacement may want to install a replacement for Hiller behind the Kings’ bench. With veterans out there, including Peter Laviolette, Dan Bylsma and John Tortorella – as well as newcomers or NHL assistant coaches who could be available – the Kings may find someone else with a different play style in mind for this squad.
There’s no salary cap limit on coaching, so if L.A. does want to move in a new direction with their coaching, it will only cost them two years of Hiller’s remaining salary. But after the disappointment of two straight first-round exits under Hiller’s tenure, the status quo may not be a viable option for Blake’s replacement.
For a team that’s only five days into its off-season, the Ottawa Senators aren’t wasting any time preparing for next season. On Monday, GM Steve Staios signed RFA defenceman Nik Matinpalo to a two-year extension. On Tuesday, according to Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch, the team parted company with associate GM Ryan Bowness.
Bowness was originally hired in the summer of 2022, so he was one of the few holdovers from the team’s previous regime. He avoided the axe that fell on the jobs of his boss, GM Pierre Dorion, along with head coach D.J. Smith, assistants Davis Payne and Jack Capuano, the media relations staff, and several others.
According to Garrioch’s report, this decision was a mutual parting of the ways. For the record, that’s also how the team framed Dorion’s exit.
Bowness was also the GM of the Belleville Senators. Garrioch indicates that Dave Poulin, the club’s senior vice-president of hockey ops, will replace Bowness at the AHL board of governors meeting this week, and expects that director of player personnel Rob DiMaio, a Staios hire, may take over Bowness' job as Sens' associate GM.
Prior to his hiring in Ottawa, Bowness served as director of pro scouting for the Pittsburgh Penguins, and his move here was more than just a professional opportunity—it was personal. As the son of Rick Bowness, the Senators' first head coach in the early '90s, Ryan was able to return to the team and town that both factored into a lot of his childhood and hockey memories.
Ryan began his NHL front office career with the Thrashers in Atlanta, where his dad began his NHL playing career with the Flames in the 1970s.
The Senators have not issued an official statement on Bowness' status, but given his resumé and reputation, Bowness likely won’t be without opportunities for very long.
Pittsburgh Penguins president of hockey operations and general manager Kyle Dubas has spent more than a year working to build back up the team's prospect pool, there was some hope that one budding young player would be joining the organization next season.
The Penguins made an offer to Ilyin, but he declined it.
Ilyin, 20, has spent the majority of the past three seasons with Severstal, amassing seven goals and 30 points in 64 games last season.
The 6-foot, 180-pound winger is known for his smarts and details, and his playmaking and passing skills are also strengths in his game. While his skating needs a little bit of work, his vision pretty much makes up for that deficiency.
Many expected Ilyin to being playing in North America next season, but given the success he's seen on the top line for Severstal in his third season with the team - playing with and against the highest competition in Russia, nonetheless - it's understandable why he may want to develop more with Severstal.
Across parts of three seasons with the Cherepovets, Ilyin has registered 19 goals and 61 points in 150 games.
The Buffalo Sabres falling to the ninth overall pick at the 2025 NHL Draft in Los Angeles in late June is not the best situation for the club, as there appears to be a consensus that there is a drop-off after the top five of this draft class, but that does not mean Buffalo will be unable to select a player that could help them down the road.
Last year, the Sabres traded down from 11th to 14th with San Jose and acquired a second-round pick (which was dealt to Washington for Beck Malenstyn). The Sharks used Buffalo’s pick to select defenseman Sam Dickinson, while the Sabres chose Konsta Helenius.
The ninth overall pick one year ago was made by the Calgary Flames, and they selected defenseman Zayne Parekh. Selecting at #9 is a crapshoot, but it is still possible for the Sabres to get someone who could be a productive player.
Here are the 9th overall picks from the last five drafts:
2024: Zayne Parekh(Calgary) - The 19-year-old led the OHL in defensive scoring with 107 points (33 goals, 74 assists) with the Windsor Spitfires. He played one game at the end of the season with Calgary and is expected to play in the NHL next season.
2023: Nate Danielson(Detroit) - Danielson played four seasons in the WHL and graduated to the American Hockey League this season, where he scored 39 points (12 goals, 27 assists). Based on the Red Wings' slow developmental process, it is likely he will play next season with Grand Rapids.
2022: Matthew Savoie(Buffalo) - This pick may already be considered a failure by Sabres fans, since Savoie was dealt to Edmonton in the Ryan McLeod deal. The 21-year-old spent all of last season with Bakersfield in the AHL and scored 19 goals, earning a four-game look with the Oilers.
2021: Dylan Guenther(Arizona) - The Coyotes hit the jackpot at #9 with the selection of Guenther, who split time between the WHL and NHL as a 20-year-old, scored 18 goals in 45 games last season, signed a seven-year contract with Utah, and scored 27 goals this season with the Hockey Club.
2020: Marco Rossi(Minnesota) - Selected one pick after the Sabres selected Jack Quinn, the Austrian-born center had complications after contracting COVID in 2020, but after spending most of 2023 in the AHL, Rossi has scored 20+ goals for the Wild the last two seasons.
Follow Michael on X, Instagram, and Bluesky @MikeInBuffalo
— y-Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) May 6, 2025
Vegas won the West and the Stanley Cup in 2023, while the Oilers are looking for redemption after winning the West last year, only to lose to the Florida Panthers in the Cup Final.
With plenty of similarities from the 2023 playoffs comes several changes to both lineups.
Depth will be key, while top-line superstars will be counted on to ignite for both teams.
Here are three reasons the Golden Knights can get past their arch-rivals and advance to the Western Conference Final:
1. COACHING: Yes, Kris Knoblauch is now on the bench for Edmonton, instead of Jay Woodcroft, and many believe that's one of the reasons the team is better. It may be true, but that doesn't take away from the fact the Knights still have the edge with their bench boss, Bruce Cassidy. Long before he arrived in Vegas, the 59-year-old skipper spent time as head coach of both the Washington Capitals and Boston Bruins, guiding the latter to the Cup Final in 2019, where they lost to the surprising St. Louis Blues. Knoblauch has is in his second year as a head coach, and sure he led the Oilers to the Cup Final in his inaugural season, but he also has the liberty of coaching who some consider the two best players in the world in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Where Cassidy holds the edge is in his ability to make adjustments on the fly, and keep fluidity among his forward lines and defensive pairings. We saw it in the opening round against Minnesota, and he won't be afraid to do it again if need be against the Oilers.
"I think the relationship between the coach and the player probably gets more and more cemented or solidified with time, as opposed to year one," Vegas general manager Kelly McCrimmon said. "But, he stands for the same things that that he stood for as a coach of the Boston Bruins, with the reasons that we hired him, the things that we wanted him to bring to our organization. I think that's been really consistent. I think he's had some changes to staff.
"I think there's different things that you just have to evolve and adapt and grow with day by day. But in terms of who he is and what type of coach he is, I think very much what he was when he arrived."
And that, in fact, is the coach who led the Knights to their first championship.
2. A WILD X-FACTOR: William Karlsson, affectionately known to the fanbase as "Wild Bill," has been exceptional on and off the stat sheet, and continues to do what he does quietly at both ends of the ice. Karlsson has been someone the Knights can count on, and Cassidy can turn to, when making line adjustments, to provide defense at one end, or to make things happen at the other. Karlsson just may be the most underrated never-nominated Selke Trophy kind of player in the NHL. Karlsson owns 67 points (29 goals, 38 assists) in his 100 playoff games and a franchise-best +38 rating. Of his nine regular-season goals this season, four were game-winning tallies, the second-most for Vegas.
"He's appreciated by the people in this room who see him every day, and by our fans and certainly by the organization," McCrimmon said. "But he is a consistent, zero maintenance, hard working, intelligent, two-way player. ... A proven playoff performer, just a tremendously valuable player in our organization. (He) knows exactly what the organization is about, what we stand for, what we want to look like. And he's a big, big part of that, has been from the beginning."
3. GOALTENDING: It's Vegas' Adin Hill versus either Calvin Pickard or Stuart Skinner for the Oilers. Game 1 will pit Hill against Pickard. And the fact is, Hill has proven statistically to be a much better goaltender, and is playoff tested. It was the 2023 series against the Oilers when Hill was brought in, and he's been the guy ever since. After sitting on the bench as Jordan Binnington's backup for the 4 Nation's Face-Off, Hill returned for the final stretch of the regular season with a chip on his shoulder and turned in a 12-3-1 mark to go along with a .920 save percentage and 2.11 goals-against average. In that stretch, among goalies with a minimum of 16 starts, Hill's save percentage was eighth-best in the league, while is goals-against average ranked fifth. Pickard has been the guy for the Oilers in the postseason, going 4-0 with a 2.93 goals-against average, but that .893 save percentage is rather low when coming into a series against a team as deep as the Knights. If the Oilers are forced to go with Skinner, he's 0-2 with a 6.11 GAA and .810 SV% this postseason.
"He was excellent, he got better as the series went on," Cassidy said, about Hill against Minnesota in the first round. "He’s been good in the playoffs, the big games. Hopefully that continues. It’s been his playoff resume so far."
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