The Buffalo Sabres know their schedule for the 2025-26 campaign, and if Buffalo hopes to end their Stanley Cup playoff drought after 14 years, they're going to need to make the most of every rivalry they have in the league. And that includes the Pittsburgh Penguins -- the team that is the latest Metropolitan Division rival for the Sabres in THN.com's Sabres site rankings of all Buffalo's Eastern Conference's rivals.

The Penguins continue the impossible balancing act of trying to stay competitive for elder stars Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang and Erik Karlsson with the need to build and prepare for a new generation of Pens players.

As such, most pundits don't see Pittsburgh as a legitimate playoff contender next year, but that doesn't mean the Sabres still don't need to beat when they do square off next season. So let's explore the Sabres/Penguins rivalry, and see who should be the favorite to beat the other team and go further next season.

BUFFALO SABRES VS. PITTSBURGH PENGUINS

NEW PENGUINS PLAYERS: Anthony Mantha, LW; Justin Brazeau, RW; Matt Dumba, D; Connor Clifton, D; Parker Wotherspoon, D; Alexander Alexeyev, D

2024-25 SERIES: Sabres 1-2-0, Penguins 2-1-0

2025-26 GAMES AGAINST EACH OTHER:  December 3 at Philadelphia; December 18 at Buffalo; January 14 at Buffalo 

CAN THE SABRES BEAT THIS TEAM?  The Penguins have shuffled around their roster to a significant degreee this summer, but the players Pens GM Kyle Dubas brought in hardly can be considered difference-makers. You've got players with faded offensive skills (Mantha), pluggers who aren't really offensive forces at all (Brazeau, Clifton, Wotherspoon) and veterans sent packing in a pure salary dump (Dumba). If that sounds enthralling to you, you may be a member of Penguins management.

Otherwise, you're probably in the majority of NHL observers who see the Pens brand continue to take a beating this coming season. Yes, even with an all-world competitor in Crosby, you can still fail to make the playoffs, as was true for the Penguins in 2024-25 when they missed out on playoff action for the third straight season. And for the seventh straight year, Pittsburgh has failed to win a playoff round. That is just abysmal. That is indefensible. But that's the reality for Pens fans.

Know Your Enemy, Sabres Metropolitan Edition: Do Young Flyers Pose A Threat To Buffalo Next Year?The Buffalo Sabres desperately need to qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs next season. And while the Philadelphia Flyers aren't quite as desperate as the Sabres are to do so, Philadelphia GM Daniel Briere wouldn't object at all if the Flyers surprised people and got into the post-season this coming year.

So, should the Sabres be beating this Penguins team next season? We'd say that, yes, the Sabres should be winning at least two of three games against Pittsburgh. Why? For one thing, Buffalo's goaltending picture is far superior to that of the Penguins. Dubas acquired youngster Arturs Silovs from the Vancouver Canucks this summer, but while it's possible Silovs will thrive, he's playing behind a Penguins defense corps that hardly can be considered an above-average defensive unit. And if Silovs doesn't steal the starter's job in net, the next best option is Tristan Jarry, who was an absolute disaster last season and may be playing in the American League for the second straight year.

Meanwhile, the Sabres have more depth when it comes to elite talent. Scratch beneath Crosby and Malkin, and you have a collection of forwards that are third-liners and fourth-liners. Similarly, scratch beneath Letang and Karlsson, and you have a group of D-men that are third-pair defensemen at best.

Know Your Enemy, Sabres Metropolitan Edition: Will Buffalo Shock Re-Arranged Rangers Next Year?THN.com's ongoing series on the Buffalo Sabres and their opponents next season continues with this look at the New York Rangers and the considerable changes the Rangers have made thus far this off-season, as well as their record against the Sabres and their schedule head-to-head this coming season.

Simply put, there's not nearly enough depth in Pittsburgh to have them considered a strong possibility to make the playoffs. Dubas is going to increasingly feel the heat if the Penguins don't show some type of progress, but the truth is he needs to add more youth to this team for its best long-term interests, and that flies in the face of Crosby and the other veteran Penguins needing to win and win now.

The Sabres have more urgency to their game than the seemingly lifeless Penguins do. The Pens may have a new coach in rookie Dan Muse, and Muse has a roster that's a dog's breakfast of Grade-A, Hockey Hall-of-Fame talents and worker bees who can't create much offense on their own. Asking him to get this team into the playoffs next year is a huge ask. And we aren't sure Muse can deliver on that front.

Know Your Enemy, Sabres Metropolitan Edition: Are Retooling Islanders A Better Team Than Buffalo?Welcome back to  THN.com's Buffalo Sabres site. In recent days and weeks, we've been focusing on the teams the Sabres will square off against next season. And in today's file, we're turning our attention to a team Buffalo will be taking on in the latest battl(es) of New York (state) -- the New York Islanders.

For those reasons, we see the Penguins as an opponent the Sabres absolutely have to beat at least twice, if not thrice in their three games this year. Crosby can't do it all for his team, and Buffalo needs to pounce on a weak rival to strengthen their push into a post-season position. 

The Pens are major underachievers, and nothing we've seen from them this off-season convinces us that will change anytime soon. They're going to struggle, and the Sabres need to take advantage of them.

The Detroit Red Wings feel that they have two of the best goaltending prospects in the National Hockey League today in Sebastian Cossa and Trey Augustine. 

Cossa has already gained valuable experience playing professional hockey with the Grand Rapids Griffins, though he did struggle at times during the Calder Cup postseason.

Meanwhile, Augustine has played a starring role in the success for the United States in international play, earning the distinction of the winningest American-born goaltender in IIHF World Junior Championship history. 

He backstopped the United States to consecutive gold medal victories in 2024 and 2025, and saw his stock rise by having his name included in a recent NHL ranking of the best goaltenders aged 25 or younger. 

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Red Wings fans are going to have to wait a bit longer to see him don the Winged Wheel, as he informed the organization months ago that he intended to return to East Lansing and suit up for the Michigan State Spartans for his junior season. 

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Augustine, the 41st overall selection by the Red Wings in the 2023 NHL Draft, recently explained that he feels he has unfinished business yet to accomplish with the Spartans in the form of a national championship.

"There’s still something to prove there and I want to go back and win a national championship," Augustine said via Helene St. James of The Detroit Free Press. "But it was a lot of good things that happened throughout the year. I got better as a hockey player and as a person and am looking to do that again next year."

As far as when he feels he'll start playing professional hockey within the Red Wings' system, Augustine said that's a decision that's yet to be made.

"I still have to go out there and prove it," he said. "I’ll make that decision at the end of next season."

Augustine's accomplishments not only in international play but with the Spartans, which include him taking home first-team All-Big Ten and All-America honors, are nothing to overlook. 

While Cossa may have gotten the bulk of attention from Red Wings fans excited about the future, Augustine has already made a strong case for himself to eventually be Detroit's starter. 

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The Chicago Blackhawks have a lot of events to look forward to during their 2025-26 campaign. With it being their centennial season in the NHL, a lot of celebrations are going to take place. 

There is one night, however, that has nothing to do with their centennial celebration and should have the United Center crowd excited to the max. That is the night that Jonathan Toews returns to Chicago as a member of another team. On January 19th, 2026, Toews will be there with his Winnipeg Jets. 

Toews was a member of the Blackhawks for his entire 15-season NHL career. Most of it was spent as the team captain. They made him the 3rd overall pick in the 2006 NHL Draft, and he became one of their all-time greatest players. Now, it will be interesting to see how he looks late in his career on another team. 

Up to this point, Toews has 372 goals, 511 assists, and 883 points to go with three Stanley Cups, a Selke Trophy, and a Conn Smythe Trophy. A trip to the Hall of Fame is more than likely for the former captain. 

When Toews announced his return with the Jets, the Blackhawks had this to say:

"The entire Blackhawks organization would like to congratulate Jonathan and welcome him back to the NHL. The work he's done over the past two years to make his return is a testament to his resiliency and determination - the same qualities that our fans fell in love with and continue to define him as a player."

Toews is one of the most decorated players to have come through the city of Chicago as an athlete. His legendary status in town should make for an incredibly special night when he returns. 

When Patrick Kane, another Chicago sports legend, made his first return a few years ago, it was one of the most entertaining nights in franchise history. It has paved the way for Toews’s return to be just as fun. 

Nights like this should be good for the young players that Chicago currently has, too. It is an insight into what they can become if they help the franchise be a perennial winner. 

Visit The Hockey News Chicago Blackhawks team site to stay updated on the latest news, game-day coverage, player features, and more.

We’ve passed the halfway point of The Hockey News’ NHL summer splash series – our rankings of the off-season of every NHL team. In these files, we’re examining each team’s lineup additions, departures, hirings and firings, and judging which teams improved, which teams got worse, and which teams stayed the same. And in this particular file, we’re focused on the team that came in 15th overall in our rankings – the Colorado Avalanche.

The Avalanche made a slew of roster changes last season, and while Colorado did lose their first-round series against Dallas, there’s still many things you have to like about where they are as a team today. Of course, there’s superstars Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar, there’s also a goalie tandem that was one of the NHL’s better duos, and the Avs have depth throughout the roster.

As you’ll see below, the Avalanche didn’t make a lot of noise this summer. But the reality is that Colorado GM Chris MacFarland made all the moves he needed to last season. When you deal with a salary cap conundrum by trading an elite winger in Mikko Rantanen for an above-average forward in Martin Necas, you’ve set the table for many more solid seasons. 

But before we take a bigger look at the Avs as a team, let’s look at the few additions MacFarland made to his roster.

Additions

Brent Burns (D)

The Breakdown: The Avalanche had one of the deeper defense corps in the league last season, with Makar, Devon Toews, Josh Manson, Samuel Girard and Sam Malinski forming an elite back end. But MacFarland raised the bar for Colorado’s blueliners by signing veteran star and former Carolina Hurricanes D-man Brent Burns to a one-year, $1-million contract.

At 40 years old, Burns is the oldest player in the league. And while his offensive numbers have dropped steadily in recent years, Burns’ snarl and size makes him a valuable, experienced hand. Something tells us Burns had a number of teams vying for him this summer, so getting him at an incredible discount is a huge win for the Avalanche.

So, if you’re saying “that’s it?” to this Avs acquisition, you’re underestimating Burns and the Avs’ all-around depth. But with Burns anchoring Colorado’s third defense pairing, you’re sealing off any real weakness in the Avalanche’s defense. And when you take into account the Avalanche’s depth at forward, it’s clear this is a team that didn’t have to make many additions to still be one of the Western Conference’s very best teams.

Departures

Charlie Coyle (C), Jonathan Drouin (LW), Joel Kiviranta (LW), Ryan Lindgren (D), Erik Johnson (D)

The Breakdown: Yes, the Avs allowed a handful of veteran contributors to leave via free-agency – most notably, center Coyle, who signed with the Columbus Blue Jackets, winger Drouin, who signed with the New York Islanders, and defenseman Lindgren, who joined the Seattle Kraken – but you have to look at Colorado’s team through MacFarland’s eyes. And that means looking at a lineup that gets a huge boost with the return to action of captain Gabriel Landeskog, which is like making a major trade with nothing but cap space to pay for it.

Meanwhile, the Avalanche’s few moves have freed up approximately $3.34 million in cap space, and you’d better believe MacFarland is going to use every penny of it as he goes to the trade market at some point this year. If MacFarland’s moves last season are any indication, he’s not a GM afraid to make tough moves and swing for the fences in doing so. If you’re an Avs fan, you have to be happy with his job performance thus far.

The Bottom Line

The Avalanche play in arguably the NHL’s toughest division in the Central Division. With tough teams like the Stars, Winnipeg Jets, Minnesota Wild and St. Louis Blues all around them, the Avs have to be at their best if they hope to secure home-ice advantage as a top-two seed next season. 

That said, we’re still feeling very good about Colorado’s chances to do great things next year. MacKinnon is very much a beast still in his prime, and the same goes for Makar. MacFarland may have a cap problem when Necas’ contract expires at the end of the coming season, but we expect MacFarland will deal with it, either at the trade deadline or well before it. Necas’ contract demands may push him out of Colorado’s cap framework, but even then, we’d expect MacFarland will move Necas and get back important parts in return. 

Otherwise, this Avalanche team is the perfect example of not needing to make a boatload of trades to be ranked above-average in our summer splash ranks. Colorado did what they needed to do last season, and they’ve now been given the opportunity to settle in as a larger group and press forward past some of the league’s best organizations. 

The Avs are slick, speedy and skilled to a depth that’s the envy of many teams. And if and when Colorado does go on another deep playoff run, no one will say they didn’t see it coming.

Summer Splash Rankings

15. Colorado Avalanche

16. Ottawa Senators

17. Boston Bruins

18. Edmonton Oilers

19. Minnesota Wild

20. Seattle Kraken

21. Columbus Blue Jackets

22. Washington Capitals

23. Nashville Predators

24. New York Islanders

25. Tampa Bay Lightning

26. Toronto Maple Leafs

27. Dallas Stars

28. Calgary Flames

29. Los Angeles Kings

30. Winnipeg Jets

31. Chicago Blackhawks

32. Buffalo Sabres

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Red Wings' Osgood Wants To Be Osgreat - Dec. 6, 1996 - Vol. 50, Issue 13 - Mike Brophy

Don’t be fooled by the boyish good looks or the soft-spoken voice-quite often barely audible, especially when the conversation turns to his ranking among goaltenders in the NHL.

A fire bums inside of Detroit Red Wings’ goalie Chris Osgood. Stoking the flames is his desire to be No. 1. That’s not on his team, because he already is. He wants to be No. 1 in the league.

“I want to win the Stanley Cup more than anything,” said Osgood, 24. “I’ll do anything to win. At the same time, in my mind, I want to be one of the best goalies in the league, if not the very best. Ever since I came into the league, it has been my goal to be the best goalie in the league.”

Osgood won’t reveal how close he feels he is to reaching the summit, although his sterling numbers and continued success suggest it is within sight. Since Osgood joined the Red Wings in 1993-94, only four goalies-Mike Richter of the New York Rangers, Martin Brodeur of the New Jersey Devils, Ed Belfour of the Chicago Blackhawks and Ron Hextall of the Philadelphia Flyers—have recorded more wins than Osgood’s 83. And those goalies were clearly No. 1 on their teams, getting the bulk of playing time while Osgood shared the crease with Mike Vernon.

Wins are wonderful. So are personal statistics. But there’s more to ranking goalies than simply considering their numbers. Osgood’s 39 victories (with just six losses and five ties) last season was tops in the league. He tied with Hextall for best goals-against average at 2.17 and tied with Brodeur for seventh-best save percentage at 91.1.

Patrick Roy, on the other hand, tied for 12th in goals-against and 10th in save percentage, but led the Colorado Avalanche to the Cup-his third. For that, Roy remains the king. And Curtis Joseph of the Edmonton Oilers, who didn’t rank in the top 30 in GAA or SP last season, got the nod for Canada’s entry at the World Cup. Osgood wasn’t among the three goalies on the team.

f0017-02

Osgood hadn’t been around long enough to receive serious consideration for the post. Experience certainly was a key in selecting Bill Ranford of the Boston Bruins and Brodeur as Joseph’s backups.

Playing for a powerhouse such as the Red Wings is both a blessing and a curse for Osgood. Of course he racks up wins, the Red Wings play a strict defensive system that would benefit any goalie. It’s worth noting, though, while the team had difficulty winning this season. Osgood’s own numbers remained impressive. He led the league in GAA at 1.73 and was third in SP at 93.4. And because the Red Wings have not utilized the defense-oriented left wing lock the way they did the previous two years, Osgood has been left to his own devices more often.

“Since he came into the league, the one thing he has done consistently is find a way to win,” said Detroit assistant GM Ken Holland. “For that, he deserves credit.”

But he doesn’t get the elite status afforded Roy, Richter, Brodeur, Dominik Hasek of the Buffalo Sabres and John Vanbies-brouck of the Florida Panthers. There is a glut of challengers. Osgood, Jim Carey of the Washington Capitals and Nikolai Khabibulin of the Phoenix Coyotes are among the up-and-comers.

Osgood needs his team to have a successful playoff to receive the recognition he deserves. That’s going to be tough because anything short of winning the Cup is considered failure in Detroit.

Meanwhile, Osgood continues to work diligently at his craft, concentrating on positional play. A save he made on Colorado’s Joe Sakic last year, diving back into the net, was picked best play of the year. Osgood said if his game were where he wants it to be, it wouldn’t have been a consideration. “I want to be in the right place at the right time,” he said, “and not have to make the flashy save because I was out of position.”

Seattle Kraken forward Carson Rehkopf is gearing up for his first season of professional hockey in the AHL with the Coachella Valley Firebirds, and the 20-year-old could follow a similar path to a fellow Kraken prospect.

Jani Nyman made the jump from professional hockey in Finland to North America, dominating and achieving several milestones, which included a call-up and an extended stint in the NHL. With the Firebirds, the 21-year-old scored 28 goals and 44 points in 58 games, leading the team in goals and ranking second in points. He earned a nod to the All-Star game and was among the best rookies in the AHL.

In his stint in the NHL, Nyman notched three goals and six points in 12 games, proving he was more than ready to play in the NHL. 

Part of Nyman's success was attributed to his size and NHL-ready frame. Listed at 6-foot-4, 220 pounds, Nyman was never pushed around or looked out of place, something Rehkopf could do this year.

Rehkopf has torn the OHL apart in the last two seasons, scoring 42 goals and 86 points in 57 games this past season. The year prior, Rehkopf recorded 52 goals and 95 points in 60 games. The Barrie, Ont. native is ready for his next challenge, and it'll come by way of the AHL.

If Rehkopf hopes to follow in the footsteps of Nyman, it'll start with a strong training camp and pre-season. Nyman was one of the standout performers in the pre-season last year and carried the momentum into the OHL season. 

The 6-foot-2, 201-pound left-handed forward also has an NHL-ready frame and play style. Rehkopf uses his speed to force defenders onto their heels in transition. The threat of his shot creates play-making opportunities, and his passing abilities open up space for him to showcase his shot. He also possesses tremendous offensive instincts, which help him find open areas near the front of the net.

The Firebirds enter the 2025-26 season with one of the youngest forward groups in the AHL. Due to the youth of the roster, Rehkopf will have plenty of opportunities to take on a larger role and possibly earn a call-up to the NHL following the trade deadline, like Nyman did.

Trio Of Kraken Prospects Invited To Team Canada's World Junior Summer Showcase RosterThree Seattle Kraken prospects, Berkly Catton, Jake O'Brien and Ollie Josephson, have been invited to Team Canada's World Junior Summer Showcase roster.

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Nabokov For Kiprusoff - Sept. 7, 2009 - Vol. 63, Iss. 03 – Adam Proteau

THE NHL’S INCREASINGLY RECEDING summer break is just about over. With a couple of notable exceptions – a solution for Dany Heatley in Ottawa and some type of significant move from San Jose Sharks GM Doug Wilson – teams have remodeled their roster as much as they’re prepared to before the regular season’s first dozen games reveal their strengths and deficiencies.

Some of those teams will be rewarded for their confidence early in the campaign; others will feel significant pushback from the hockey gods and stumble hard out of the gate.

Unfortunately, thanks to the implication of parity brought on by the salary cap era, a bad start for certain franchises (for example, five of the Original Six teams or the rebuilding Islanders) will resonate in a far more negative manner than it would for, say, the Detroit Red Wings.

But if it gets more difficult to make trades each year of the collective bargaining agreement, what caliber of in-season roster reshaping can be done anymore?

It depends what you think of the term “lateral move.”

For instance, let’s say the Calgary Flames and Sharks stink up October with no more than a few wins apiece. Like coach Alain Vigneault in Vancouver and goalie Ray Emery in Philadelphia, neither team can afford a slow start.

Calgary has added a new elite defenseman in Jay Bouwmeester and a new coach in Brent Sutter, while the local hot seat hosts the haunches of Brent’s other brother Darryl, the team’s GM.

The Sharks have underachieved to an extent that cries out for some substantive change, yet we’ve only seen alterations via natural attrition (Jeremy Roenick’s retirement) and unnatural attrition (eg. the non-tendering of qualifying contracts to restricted free agents Marcel Goc, Lukas Kaspar and Tomas Plihal).

Of course, there’s no way either Wilson or Sutter moves Joe Thornton or Dion Phaneuf during such a skid, because they know other GMs can smell blood in the water and would go skimpy on the trade offers.

Which brings us back to the lateral move. Picture a Sharks-Flames deal like this one:

To San Jose from Calgary: A 32-year-old goalie with 204 career regular season wins, 25 playoff wins, a career .912 regular season save percentage and career 2.46 regular season goals-against average;

AN EX-NHL GM SAYS IT’S A POTENTIAL DEAL THAT PASSES THE SMELL TEST

3 AHL Rookies Who Could Be Difference Makers for the San Jose BarracudaThe San Jose Sharks have an abundance of prospects who will be battling for spots in the NHL and the American Hockey League this coming season.

To Calgary from San Jose: A 34-year-old goalie with 249 career regular season wins, 32 playoff wins, a career .911 regular season save percentage and a career 2.38 regular season GAA.

That’s right: Miikka Kiprusoff to San Jose, Evgeni Nabokov to Calgary.

Yeah, Kiprusoff’s contract term (he’s signed at an average of more than $5.8 million per year through 2013-14) differs greatly from Nabokov’s (he’ll be an unrestricted free agent after earning $5.375 million this season), but trading two virtually identical players would be a notable deck-shuffling that minimizes the potential downside associated with moving big-money players.

Besides, the Sharks have all kinds of cap flexibility after this season. More importantly, they’d be repatriating Kiprusoff back into the organization that drafted him in 1995.

The Flames, meanwhile, would have Nabokov in a contract year and cap relief if he didn’t pan out. They’d also be bringing in a familiar face – at least, familiar to Darryl Sutter, who coached Nabokov in San Jose for the first two-and-a-half seasons of the goalie’s career.

According to one former NHL GM (who spoke on condition his name not be used), it’s a potential deal that passes the smell test.

“It does make sense,” the former GM said of a Nabokov-for-Kiprusoff swap. “From the Flames’ perspective, I think they’d love to pass on Kiprusoff and get out of that contract.

“Beyond that, it makes sense age-wise, salary-wise, and you have two (GMs) comfortable enough with one another to make that deal. One of the really interesting things is that Nabokov is one of the very best puckhandling goaltenders in the league. I start to wonder if Brent (Sutter), after having been around Martin Brodeur in New Jersey last year, might think that’s an element they need.”

Regardless of whether the elements come together for that particular trade to become reality, there’s no doubt the bar for NHL blockbusters has been re-set by the league’s newfound financial prudence – and that bar hasn’t been heightened.

It’s as if the league and its teams are doing what everybody else is doing in this uncertain economy: sticking with what they know, keeping risks to a minimum, getting value-for-value as much as possible.

That’s why, for the foreseeable future, lateral moves may be the only ones that get made.

68 Days Until Opening Day: The Sharks' History of Number 68We’re just 68 days away from the San Jose Sharks kicking off their season against the Vegas Golden Knights at the SAP Center. From The Archive: Michael Misa vs. James Hagens The Hockey News has released its archive to all THN subscribers: 76 years of history, stories, and features. From The Archive: The Joes' Last Stand? The Hockey News has released its archive to all THN subscribers: 76 years of history, stories, and features. From The Archive: Stay-At-Home SharkThe Hockey News has released its archive to all THN subscribers: 76 years of history, stories, and features.