Canadian left winger Brendan Leipsic, 31, has signed a contract to play the remainder of the current season with SKA St. Petersburg, the KHL club announced on Sunday.

A former NHLer, Lepsic has played in the KHL since 2020 but has been without a contract since the end of last season. This will be his second tour of duty in St. Petersburg, having previously played there during the 2023-24 season.

Leipsic, who hails from Winnipeg, played junior hockey for the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks and was chosen in the third round, 89th overall, by the Nashville Predators in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft. From 2014 until 2020, he recorded 59 points and 53 penalty minutes in 187 NHL games with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Vegas Golden Knights, Vancouver Canucks, Los Angeles Kings and Washington Capitals.

In May 2020, the Capitals terminated Leipsic’s contract after his misogynistic comments in an online chat group were leaked to the public.

Former Shark, Canuck Claimed Off Waivers In KHL Russian winger Nikolai Goldobin, 29, has been claimed off KHL waivers by SKA St. Petersburg, the KHL website announced on Monday. He had been waived by Spartak Moscow, the club for which he’d played the past two seasons.

Leipsic has played in the KHL continuously since 2020 for CSKA Moscow, Metallurg Magnitogorsk, SKA, Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg and Sibir Novosibirsk, recording 170 points in 286 regular-season and playoff games. During the 2024-25 season, he was traded from Avtomobilist to Sibir and had 24 points across 61 games with both teams.

Leipsic joins an SKA team that currently sits eighth in the KHL’s 11-team Western Conference with 10 wins in 23 games. The team’s roster includes ex-NHLers Nikita Zaitsev, Rocco Grimaldi and Nikolai Goldobin and is coached by Hall-of-Famer Igor Larionov.

Igor Larionov Jr. To Play For Father In KHL American-Russian center Igor Larionov Jr., 26, has signed a one-year contract with SKA St. Petersburg, the KHL club announced on social media on Wednesday.

New York Islanders netminder Ilya Sorokin put forth one of the best performances we've seen from him in quite some time when he stopped all 33 shots that came his way in their 5-0 shutout win over the New York Rangers. 

pic.twitter.com/k3RwRivhhb

— NHL (@NHL) November 9, 2025

"I felt focused in all three periods. I just played minute by minute. I could see it in my head all game," Sorokin shared postgame. 

With the shutout, Sorokin broke a tie with Billy Smith for the second-most shutouts in franchise history with 23. Glenn "Chico" Resch is first with 25.

"I feel like he's playing with a lot of confidence," head coach Patrick Roy said postgame. "I mean, we made the goalie coach change, and I think he's very comfortable with Sergei (Naumovs). They seemed to connect really well, and it's good for the team, it's good for him, and I like to see him play with that confidence and that focus. He seemed really big in front of the net, and that's what you want for your team."

#Isles Morning After: @stefen_rosner dives into the new D-pairs, the role they played in their 5-0 victory over #NYR & how key they are in this club finding consistency going forward: pic.twitter.com/0DJxLZxAO8

— The Elmonters (@TheElmonters) November 9, 2025

 "He was unbelievable," Islanders forward Bo Horvat said. "I mean, he made unbelievable saves at great times of the game. And when you have that confidence back there in your goaltender, it's fun to play in front of them. He was phenomenal."

Sorokin got off to a tough start this season, but he's turned his season around as of late. 

Over his last three games (2-0-1), Sorokin owns a 1.30 GAA and .952 SV%. That's the best save percentage of any NHL goalie who has made at least three appearances in that span, per Islanders statistician Eric Hornick. 

In six games since Naumovs became the goalie coach (2-1-2), Sorokin owns a 2.14 GAA with a .915 SV%.

Don’t look now, but after going 0-2-1 to start the season, the Chicago Blackhawks have gone 7-3-2 in their past dozen games, including a 4-0 blanking of the Calgary Flames Friday night.

If the Stanley Cup playoffs began today, the Blackhawks would be a playoff team as they currently sit in the second wild card spot. That’s obviously a stretch, but as we approach the 20 percent point of the season, it’s impressive that the Hawks are where they are in the standings.

But the strange thing about the Hawks isn’t that Connor Bedard is phenomenal. No, the odd thing is that Chicago’s defense has undergone a drastic improvement. To wit: last season, the Blackhawks had the NHL’s second-worst defense, averaging 3.56 goals-against per game. This year, Chicago is averaging just 2.60 goals-against, the fourth-best number in the entire league. If it seems like that is an unsustainable pace for Chicago on ‘D’, that’s because it probably is.

Still, many of the Blackhawks’ ducks are starting to fall in a row. For instance, goalie Spencer Knight was the key reason why Chicago shut out the Flames, turning aside all 33 shots he faced Friday for his first shutout of the season and the sixth of his four-year NHL career. 

In six of his past nine games, the 24-year-old Knight has posted a save percentage of .938 or higher, and his overall SP of .926 and his goals-against average of 2.33 this season are outstanding. The Blackhawks indeed gave up star defenseman Seth Jones in the trade that brought Knight to Chicago, but you have to believe Hawks GM Kyle Davidson is extremely satisfied that the trade has improved his team.

The way things are playing out, Chicago is looking like they’re going to be far more competitive this season. If Bedard continues evolving into the icon many thought he would be, and if Knight continues standing on his head, it's not out of the realm of possibility that the Hawks could be on the fringes of the playoff conversation by the end of the season. 

To be fair and realistic, the Blackhawks are likely to experience some regression in the weeks and months immediately ahead. But with every game they play so far this year, they appear to be turning the page on a competitive downswing era and returning to being a legitimate Cup contender. 

Chicago has suffered through some terrible performances in recent years, and there are still lessons to learn as a group as they continue to establish a new team identity, but at long last, the Hawks appear ready and able to take that next competitive step. Davidson has put many of the pieces in place in the Windy City, and now it’s on the players and coach Jeff Blashill to execute and reward Blackhawks fans for sticking with them through the lean years.

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Nov 8, 2025; Nashville, Tennessee, USA; Dallas Stars left wing Jason Robertson (21) drives towards the goal as Nashville Predators defenseman Nicolas Hague (41) defends during the second period at Bridgestone Arena. Alan Poizner-Imagn Images

It took 17 games for defenseman Nicolas Hague to score his first goal as a member of the Nashville Predators. Through the first eight games to start the season, the 6-foot-6, 240-pound left-shot defender was on injured reserve after suffering an upper-body injury during the Preds’ pre-season opener.

Hague had one assist coming into Saturday afternoon’s contest against the Dallas Stars at Bridgestone Arena on Filip Forsberg Bobblehead Day.

When the 26-year-old Hague finally netted his first goal as a Predator after nine games and 168 minutes of ice time, he wasn’t celebrating after the game. The Predators had just lost another one-goal game and suffered their fourth straight loss.

“There are no moral victories,” Hague said simply when asked about his goal following Saturday’s 5-4 loss to Dallas.

Indeed. The Preds had their chances, but defensive lapses, failing to convert on four of five power-play opportunities and a sluggish first period resulted in their sixth one-goal loss 17 games into another disappointing start.

Hague’s goal came at the 4:43 mark of the second period after the Stars had taken a 2-1 lead on a Roope Hintz goal. Hague took a feed from Nick Blankenburg at the left point and put a shot past Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger glove side to tie the game at two. Erik Haula earned the secondary helper.

The very first GOLDEN Haguerbomb 🤩 pic.twitter.com/CcyErpYrQ5

— Nashville Predators (@PredsNHL) November 8, 2025

Hague picked up his second assist of the season just 27 seconds later when Ryan O’Reilly fed Forsberg, who scored a goal on his Bobblehead Day to put the Preds in the lead 3-2.

The lead was short-lived, as Dallas tied the game before Steven Stamkos netted a power-play goal to put Nashville back in front, only to see it slip away with two goals by the Stars in the span of 47 seconds.

“We weren't good enough from the start,” Hague said. “Just too many costly mistakes and they compound now and came back to bite us today.”

For the game, Hague logged 22:21 of ice time with two shots on goal and a +1 rating. He came into the day with one assist through eight games.

The Preds acquired Hague last June from the Vegas Golden Knights along with Vegas' own conditional third-round pick in the 2027 NHL Draft in exchange for forward Colton Sissons and defenseman Jeremy Lauzon.

Hague then signed a four-year, $22 million contract with the Preds. at his introductory press conference in July, he expressed a desire to be a more offensive-minded defender.

"I think there's more to give [in my game] offensively," Hague said in July. "In juniors, I was an offensive guy, and when I came into the NHL, there's a heavy focus on defending in this league. You're not going to make it anywhere if you do that."

In 373 career NHL games, Hague has recorded 86 points (21-65-86) with a +17 rating. The Preds were looking to get younger and stronger on defense, qualities Hague possesses.

Every bit of scoring touch Hague can add will certainly be a bonus, however, especially when so many close games have been lost early in the season.

Hague would feel better if his goals led to more actual victories, not moral ones.

"We're not going to outscore everybody every night," Hague said Saturday, echoing the same sentiments of Steven Stamkos a couple of weeks ago. "We gotta button it up... I'd rather win 1-0 , but you're going to have those (high-scoring games). We gotta grow up and mature a little bit as a group."

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FREE GIFT ISSUE + 12 ISSUES + FREE DIGITAL ARCHIVE + FREE SHIPPING*** Canada Post Strike update - as of October 15, 2025 -  Please be aware that Canada Post is now in a rolling strike.  While they are accepting mail, delivery times could be longer than expected.  US orders are not impacted. WHAT'S INCLUDED IN YOUR PRINT & DIGITAL ARCHIVE SUBSCRIPTION > FREE GIFT ISSUE* of your

Kirill Marchenko(7,8) and Dmitri Voronkov(6) scored the goals for Columbus, while Elvis Merzlikins 21 of 25 Vancouver shots in the loss.  

This wasn't the best outing for Merzlikins, who gave up the game-winner with five minutes left. The goal was one he will definitely want back. 

The first line of Dmitri Vorokov, Adam Fantilli, and Kirill Marchenko was the only noticeable line on the ice for the Blue Jackets. Between the three of them, they combined for 8 points, 14 shots, and were a plus-3. 

The second line of Miles Wood, Sean Monahan, and Kent Johnson were noticeable for negative reasons. The three of them had zero points, 4 shots, and were a minus-6. 

The Jackets are now 0-3 on their current five-game road trip. 

First Period - 0-0 - SOG 11-8 in favor of Columbus

The first five minutes of the first period was fairly back and forth, with Vancouver getting the better of the scoring chances. The Jackets got their first power play when Lukas Reichel went off for hooking Del Bel Belluz. The Canucks killed the penalty, but the Jackets did get a few good looks. Lankinen made a pair of saves to turn the CBJ away. 

Cole Sillinger was called for holding Quinn Hughes with just over three minutes left in the period. Columbus killed the penalty off with ease, as Elvis Merzlikins had to make zero saves on the Canucks man advantage. 

Overall, it was a very good period for the Blue Jackets with lots of good pace. It seemed as though they were ready to play, and it showed. The Jackets had more scoring chances, high danger scoring chances, and had a higher Fenwick and Corsi. A very good period on the road for the Blue Jackets. 

Second Period - 2-2 - SOG 13-8 in favor of Columbus

Just 1:06 into the second, Sean Monahan drew a high sticking call against Conor Garland which gave the Jackets a power play. Vancouver would kill it off, but again, Lankinen made two saves to keep the game scoreless. 

Jake DeBrusk scored the first goal of the game at the 5:28 mark of the second. But just over a minute later, Kirill Marchenko scored to tie the game, and 7th of the season. The goal was assisted by Dmitri Voronkov and Denton Mateychuk. It extends Kirill Marchenko's point streak to seven games. 

Mathieu Olivier was given a game misconduct at the 7-minute mark for boarding Elias Pettersson. It was a very dangerous play, as Pettersson had no clue that Olivier was coming for him. The Blue Jackets killed off the penalty, giving Vancouver very few good looks at Merzlikins. 

With 6:58 left in the period, Dmitri Voronkov scored his 6th goal of the season when he jammed one into the net from in close on Kevin Lankinen. The goal was assisted by Marchenko and Fantilli. 

Drew O'Connor tied the game with 57 seconds left. Somehow, he wasn't called for crosschecking when he absolutely decked Dante Fabbro and then scored. Very questionable no-call on that sequence. 

The Jackets again played a very good road period. 

Third Period

The third period saw both teams playing four-on-four for a little over a minute, which would end without a goal. 

Conor Garland scored to make it 3-2 with just under 14 minutes left, in what felt like a back-breaking goal. Despite how well the Blue Jackets have played in this game, this goal just felt like it was going to be the game-winner. Luckily, it wasn't. 

Kirill Marchenko scored his second goal of the night when he took a pass from Dmitri Voronkov to tie the game at 3. It was a beautiful setup from Voronkov, Fantilli, and Damon Severson. 

With 5:45 to go, Brock Boeser scored, in what could be described as a very soft goal. It put the Canucks up 4-3. 

Final Stats

Player Stats

• Kirill Marchenko scored two goals and had an assist. He now has a seven game points streak.
• Dmitri Voronkov scored a goal and had 2 assists.
• Denton Mateychuk had an assist and was a plus-2.
• Adam Fantilli had two assists and five shots.
• Elvis Merzlikins stopped 21 of 25 Canucks shots.

Team Stats

• The Jackets power play went 0/2.
• The Columbus PK stopped two Canucks power plays.
• Columbus won 59.6% of the faceoffs.

Up Next: Columbus takes on the Edmonton Oilers on Monday, Nov. 10th. They will wrap up their Western swing with a matchup against the Seattle Kraken.

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Shortly after the Ottawa Senators and Philadelphia Flyers left the building after their game on Saturday afternoon, both organizations got the bad news that Mel Bridgman had passed away at the age of 70.

Bridgman had strong ties to both organizations. He was the first GM in Senators history, but was better known for his playing career, starting with the Flyers. who chose him first overall in the 1975 NHL Draft. That was unusual since they'd just won back-to-back Cups. They acquired the pick by trade, and it was the only time in history that the Flyers have picked first overall.

Bridgman went on to play his first 462 NHL games in a Flyers sweater, and also played for the Calgary Flames, New Jersey Devils, Detroit Red Wings, and Vancouver Canucks. He finished his career with 701 points across 977 regular-season games from 1975 to 1989. Bridgman also never backed down from a scrap and took on all comers, a perfect fit for the Broad Street Bullies, posting 1,625 career penalty minutes.

Two years after retiring as a player, that's when Ottawa entered the picture.

Without much experience at all, the Senators hired him as their first GM. With expansion draft rules much different from what they are now, new teams in those days were set up to fail with a 100 percent guarantee. In fact, with Bridgman only two years removed from playing, he could have jumped into action with the Sens and wouldn't have been their worst player.

Some expansion draft day issues also hampered Bridgman and the Senators, as the club famously had laptop troubles. But Bridgman's only NHL entry draft went better, yielding the very talented Alexei Yashin, still the only Senator in history to be nominated for the Hart Trophy.

The Senators issued this statement on social media:

The Ottawa Senators are saddened to learn that Mel Bridgman has passed away.

After a stellar playing career in the NHL, Mel served as our first general manager when we returned to the NHL for the 1992-93 season. He presided over our inaugural entry draft, where the club selected Alexei Yashin with the second overall selection.

The Ottawa Senators organization sends its deepest sympathies to Mel’s loved ones at this difficult time.

The Flyers also issued a statement:

The NHL Alumni Association announced Bridgman's death on Saturday. The cause of death was not disclosed.

Just like every year, the Montreal Canadiens held their Hockey Fights Cancer on Saturday night, and I’ll admit that I struggled to hold back the tears when they introduced the kids currently battling this awful disease. Not just because of the kids, but because it hit closer to home this year with my dad currently fighting the big C. Hopefully, the themed night prompted a lot of people to donate to cancer research and one day, we’ll have a cure.

Several Canadiens players chose to dedicate their fight against cancer to the coach consultant Roger Grillo, who is currently battling the disease, as announced by the organization this morning. The ceremony came to a close when a youngster who had just beaten the disease rang the bell that symbolizes his victory, to the cheers of 21,000 fans, an inspiring moment, to say the least.

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Inspire Confidence

While a goaltender’s first job is without a doubt to stop the puck, anybody who’s ever manned the net will tell you that another one of their roles is also to inspire confidence. Allowing a goal on the second shot of the game hardly inspires that, and while I don’t want to keep hitting on Samuel Montembeault when he’s down, it’s hard not to mention it.

The first goal came off a rebound he allowed on the first shot he faced from the Utah Mammoth, and while the goal wasn’t entirely on him (Joe Veleno completely lost his man on the play), the result remains the same: a shaken goaltender who struggles to inspire confidence.

A few minutes later, on a shot that wasn’t all that threatening, Montembeault spilled the puck after making a save, and it was slowly trickling into the net when Jake Evans came to his rescue to save the day and prevent the Habs from being down 2-0.

Montembeault bounced back spectacularly, however, stopping 15 of the 16 shots he faced in the second frame and making some key saves in a third period he called the best the team had played this season. Right now, it seems like the goaltender needs to build his confidence all over with every game. While that’s not ideal, it’s better than not having any confidence at all. By his own admission, Montembeault stated that the deeper the game got, the more comfortable he felt.

Reacting To The Refs

Like it or not, referees are mere mortals, and, like every human, they will make some mistakes. Granted, mistakes seem to happen a lot these days, but whatever happens on the ice, players must keep playing.

Early in the second period, Josh Anderson fell to the ice and felt that he had been interfered with. Instead of jumping up and keeping on playing, he wasted some time staying on the ice looking at the ref. As a result, the Mammoth got a three-on-one and scored a go-ahead goal. After the goal, Anderson was looking at the ref as if to say, “Look what you’ve done”. It’s not the first time this has happened this season, and the last time it did, he got an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in a game the Canadiens ended up losing against the Edmonton Oilers. Lessons need to be learned. Thankfully for Anderson, Cole Caufield was on hand to tie the game right back.

Minutes later, as the Bell Centre crowd was loudly booing because Jayden Struble had been tripped, Oliver Kapanen and Alex Newhook took off with speed on the wing. The young Finn fed Newhook, who cut inside and scored, making it 3-2 Montreal before the boobirds had even stopped voicing their displeasure. Without a doubt, the much better way to react to a disappointing call or no call in this instance.

Frustration is understandable, but you lose nothing by continuing to play if there’s something you think warrants a penalty. Worst-case scenario, you’ll give a few seconds of unnecessary effort, but it’s much better than costing your team a goal.

Goal Scoring Leaders

At the time of writing, the Canadiens have the league’s top goal scorer and the rookie top scorer as well, a rare feat for this team. Cole Caufield has 12 goals in 15 games, on pace for 66 goals, that’s a Rocket Richard Trophy-winning pace. There’s no guarantee he’ll be able to keep it up, but it’s impressive, nonetheless.

The more he plays, the harder Caufield makes it for Team USA to ignore him for the Olympics. The Americans want to play a rugged game like they did in the 4 Nations Face-Off, but Olympic hockey is a different animal, and it won’t be called the same way. Leaving behind a player who can not only score but also do it in clutch moments could be a tremendous strategic error.

As for Oliver Kapanen, the youngster now has six goals and four assists for 10 points in 15 games, which might be a surprise to some, but not to Martin St-Louis:

He’s such an intelligent player; he does all that without cheating. He does it without just going to get those things (offensive production). I think Kappy has great qualities. He plays the game that’s in front of him, does what the game dictates, and as I said this morning, it’s rare that you don’t get rewarded offensively when you have the skills. And he has the skills, with the computer he has and the skills, I’m not surprised, but I’m happy about how he goes and get those things offensively, he doesn’t do it at the expense of his defensive work.

- St-Louis on Kapanen

At the time of writing, the Canadiens had two of the top three rookie scorers in the league. Ivan Demidov has the lead with 13 points, two points ahead of Matthew Schaefer, who stands on 11, while Kapanen trails him by a single point. I don’t think many believed that would be the case when the puck dropped on the season.

In the end, the Habs won this one 6-2, and the locals went home happy after an excellent show.

The Canadiens will enjoy a day off tomorrow before getting back to work with a practice in Brossard on Monday morning. Their next game will take place on Tuesday night when they’ll host the Los Angeles Kings.

Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) on XDans le cadre des initiatives #LeHockeyPourVaincreLeCancer de cette année, Nathan de Leucan a été invité à sonner la cloche à un match des Canadiens pour souligner la fin de ses traitements contre le cancer! As part of this year's #HockeyFightsCancer initiatives, Nathan from

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Mario Ferraro, surging Sharks have eyes on NHL playoffs after beating Panthers originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

• Editor’s note: Sheng Peng is a regular contributor to NBC Sports California’s Sharks coverage. You can read more of his coverage on San Jose Hockey Now, listen to him on the San Jose Hockey Now Podcast, and follow him on Twitter at @Sheng_Peng.

It has been a long time since we’ve seen Mario Ferraro smile this much after a game.

“I’m trying to keep it cool, right?” the long-time San Jose Sharks defenseman said after a 3-1 victory over the Florida Panthers on Saturday night. “Obviously, I’m excited about what I see right now. I really want to push for playoffs.”

Playoffs?!

That’s not a word that has been said in San Jose in November in a long time.

Of course, the Sharks are just 16 games into the season.

“It’s a long season,” Ferraro said. “Personally, from a team standpoint, we know we still got work to do.”

But who could blame the Sharks lifer, part of six straight seasons out of the playoffs, if he’s excited? At 7-6-3, it’s the first time that the perennial cellar-dwellers have been over .500 since they were 28-27-8 on March 22, 2022.

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