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2025-26 Player Review: Charlie CoyleCoyle was drafted 28th overall in the 2010 draft by the San Jose Sharks.

Contract Status - Unrestricted Free Agent on July 1. 

Games Played - 82 - Played all 82 games for the 5th time in his career. 

Goals - 20 - He scored 20 goals in a season for only the third time in his career (25 in 2023-24 with Boston & 21 in 2015-16 with Minnesota). He had 7 power play goals which tied his career high. 

Assists - 38 - He tied his career high in assists that he set in 2017. 

Points - 58 - Finished just two points shy of his career high set in 22-23 with Boston. Up from 35 in 2024-25. 

2025-26 Player Review: Mathieu OlivierOlivier was undrafted out of Biloxi, Mississippi.

Contract Status - Going into year two of a 6-year contract signed in 2025. 

Games Played - 61- Down from 82 the previous season. He had two stretches where he was injured, including the final eight games after breaking his hand in a fight. 

Goals - 15 - Was on a 20 goal pace, but due to missed games, he finished three shy of his career high. 

Assists - 11 - Would've set a career high with 15 assists if not for the missed games. 

Points - 26 - Olivier was on pace to hit 35 points. 

2025-26 Player Review: Denton MateychukMateychuk was drafted 12th overall in 2022.

Contract Status - Going into year 3 of his ELC. He'll be an RFA at the end of the 26-27 season.  

Games Played - 75 - He played 45 in his rookie season after being called up mid-way through the year. 

Goals - 13 - Mateychuk scored lots of good, timely goals, and didn't waste any opportunities. He scored one power play goal. 

Assists - 18 - Something tells me Mateychuk is going to be an assist machine in his career. He had two power play assists. 

Points - 31 - Finished on a 34 point pace. He and Zach Werenski could easily put up 150 points between the two of them.  

2025-26 Player Review: Ivan Provorov Provorov was acquired by the Blue Jackets on June 6, 2023.

Contract Status - Going into year 2 of a 7-year contract signed in the summer of 2025. 

Games Played - 82 - He played 82 games for the 4th straight season, and 7th time in his career. In three seasons with the CBJ, he's never missed a game. 

Goals - 9 - His 9 goals were tied for the 3rd highest of his career.

Assists - 22 - His 22 assists are the third highest of his CBJ career, and 5th highest of his career. 

Points - 31 - 5th highest points total of his career, and third highest in his CBJ tenure.  

2025-26 Player Review: Dmitri VoronkovVoronkov was the 114th pick in the 2019 NHL Draft.

Contract Status - Going into year two of a two-year deal signed in July of 2025 at $4,175,000 per season. 

Games Played - 63 - Down from 73 the year before. 

Goals - 17 - Down from 23 the year before. He had 7 power play goals and one GWG. 

Assists - 15 - Down from 24 the previous season. 

Points - 32 - Down from 47 in 2024-25. 

Four Former Blue Jackets Could Play For Switzerland At 2026 IIHF World ChampionshipsThe slew of current and former Blue Jackets could be making the trip to Switzerland this year.

Forwards Grégory Hofmann and Calvin Thürkauf will most likely end up playing in the tournament. 

Hofmann played 24 games for Columbus back in 2021-22 and had 7 points. He currently plays for EV Zug of the Swiss National League. He did not play in the 2026 Winter Olympics. 

Former Blue Jackets Forward Is On Fire Right NowThis former Blue Jackets forward is playing some excellent hockey for the Stars.

While the series between the Stars and Wild is currently tied up, Duchene is doing all he can to help Dallas. In four games so far this postseason for the Stars, Duchene has recorded two goals, five assists, and seven points. With this, there is no question that the former Blue Jackets forward is on fire right now.

Ex-Blue Jackets Forward Is Ice-Cold So Far This PostseasonThis former Blue Jackets forward has had a slow start to the playoffs.

In five games for the Penguins so far this postseason, Chinakhov has zero points and a minus-4 rating. He has also had zero shots in each of his last two games. 

Ex-Blue Jackets Forward Has Big Playoff Moment For Canadiens This former Blue Jackets forward had a clutch moment with the Canadiens

At the 1:06 mark of the third period, Texier scored the Canadiens' game-winning goal. It was a nice goal for the former Blue Jackets forward, too, as he beat Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy on the rush with an excellent snapshot.

REPORT: Blue Jackets Defensive Prospect To Return To EuropeAccording to Elite Prospects European Scout Honza Zoufal,&nbsp;Stanislav Svozil, who was drafted 69th overall in the 2021 NHL Draft, is in talks with HC Kometa Brno, which plays in the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech_Extraliga">Czech Extraliga</a>. Svozil's contract will expire at the end of the season, making him a restricted free agent.&nbsp;

According to Elite Prospects European Scout Honza Zoufal, Stanislav Svozil, who was drafted 69th overall in the 2021 NHL Draft, is in talks with HC Kometa Brno, which plays in the Czech Extraliga. Svozil's contract will expire at the end of the season, making him a restricted free agent.   

OPINION: Re-Sign Corson Ceulemans And Promote Him To The NHLCorson Ceulemans was drafted 25th overall in 2021.

Ceulemans was drafted 25th overall in 2021 by former GM Jarmo Kekäläinen. The thought when he was drafted was that after college and a year or two in the AHL, he would be ready to go. Unfortunately, Ceulemans ended up being a victim of Kekäläinen's swing for the fence trades of Ivan Provorov and Damon Severson, more specifically, Severson. 

Blue Jackets Must Target Sabres Star Forward This SummerThe Blue Jackets would be wise to target Sabres forward Alex Tuch if he hits the market this off-season.

One specific area that the Blue Jackets could look to improve is their top six. When looking at their roster, one specific need they have is another high-impact winger.

Due to this, if Alex Tuch ends up testing the free-agent market instead of re-signing with the Buffalo Sabres this off-season, the Blue Jackets should strongly consider making a push for him. 

Next Up For Columbus: The NHL Draft Lottery on May 5, 2025, where the CBJ will most likely pick 14 or 15.

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The Minnesota Wild and Colorado Avalanche open their second-round NHL playoff series on Sunday. The Wild beat the Dallas Stars 4-2 in the first round while the Avalanche swept the Los Angeles Kings. The Colorado Avalanche are favored with a -194 moneyline compared to the Minnesota Wild's +161. The over/under for the matchup is set at 5.5 goals.

How to watch Minnesota Wild vs. Colorado Avalanche

• Date: Sunday, May 3

• Time: 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT

• Where: Ball Arena, Denver, CO

• TV Channels: TNT, truT, HBO, CBC

• Live Stream:ESPN+ | Follow on Yahoo Sports

Odds

• Spread: Colorado Avalanche -1.5

• Moneyline: Colorado Avalanche -194 (63.3%) / Minnesota Wild +161 (36.7%)

• Over/Under: 5.5

The Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning face off in Game 7 to determine the winner of their first-round playoff series. The Lightning forced Game 7 with a 1-0 victory in OT on Friday. The combined score of the previous six games is 14-14 and all of the six games were decided by a single goal. The Lightning are favored with a -161 moneyline compared to the Montreal Canadiens' +135.

How to watch Montreal Canadiens vs. Tampa Bay Lightning

• Date: Sunday, May 3

• Time: 6 p.m. ET / 3 p.m. PT

• Where: Benchmark International Arena, Tampa, FL

• TV Channels: TNT, truT, HBO, CBC

• Live Stream:ESPN+ | Follow on Yahoo Sports

Odds

• Spread: Tampa Bay Lightning -1.5

• Moneyline: Tampa Bay Lightning -161 (59.2%) / Montreal Canadiens +135 (40.8%)

• Over/Under: 5.5

Good morning, everyone. With the first round just about completed (there is one game to be played as of this writing), it is time to make an update to our Stanley Cup Playoffs Open Post. You can see the original post here, but let’s dive into the new matchups.

The Schedule: Here is the Second Round Schedule from NHL.com.

The Preview

The Eastern Conference Matchups

Carolina Hurricanes (M1/1) vs. the Philadelphia Flyers (M3/8)

I could not imagine a more lopsided matchup in the playoffs than the one right here, which should have been a first-round series. Despite the Hurricanes coming off a long rest, the Flyers looked lost against them in Game One, generating only 10 shots at five-on-five with 0.81 expected goals, per Natural Stat Trick. If that is a sign of things to come for the Flyers, they are doomed to lose in four or five games. Of course, there were concerns that Nikolaj Ehlers and Alexander Nikishin would miss some time in the series, but they were ready for Carolina’s 3-0 shutout in Game One.

Philadelphia’s only hope this series is getting the performance of a lifetime out of Dan Vladar. He had a surprisingly good regular season with a .906 save percentage (career high) in 52 games (career high by 22 games). Even with his three-goal loss last night, he still has a .928 save percentage in seven games these Playoffs. But I simply do not believe the lineup optimization to beat Rod Brind’Amour’s Hurricanes. They can thank Stuart Skinner for getting them this far, but they’re facing a machine now.

Buffalo Sabres (A1/2) vs. TBD (Lightning or Canadiens)

The Buffalo Sabres continued their long-awaited resurgence by bouncing the Boston Bruins in the First Round. Head Coach Lindy Ruff has continued to get the best out of Buffalo’s offensive stars, with each of Alex Tuch and Tage Thompson sitting at a point-per-game or better through six games, along with Bowen Byram and Peyton Krebs. Alex Lyon has been outstanding in net with a .955 save percentage and 1.14 goals against average in four starts and five games. With Buffalo winning their series over Boston pretty comfortably, Ruff has not even had to change the usual deployment of his players. Rasmus Dahlin leads the team in average ice time at 24:11 per night, which is dead-even with his regular season average. Guys like Thompson and Tuch have only added a minute or two per night, so they should all be pretty fresh for Round Two.

We will see tonight who of the Lightning or Canadiens move on to face them. Either way, it will be tough to beat Buffalo in a Best of Seven.

The Western Conference Matchups

Colorado Avalanche (C1/1) vs. Minnesota Wild (C3/3)

It’s an absolute joke that this is a second round matchup. The Central Division desperately needs to be split up if this is going to keep happening. Send the Avalanche to the Pacific, and give Vegas or Utah to the Central. One of the Vegas Golden Knights or the Anaheim Ducks are destined for the Conference Finals because of this extremely dumb format. In my eyes, this is close to being an informal Western Conference Finals.

The Minnesota Wild are not the deepest team at forward, but they have some excellent wingers in Kirill Kaprizov, Matt Boldy, and Mats Zuccarello. Brock Faber has been excellent on defense, and Quinn Hughes is currently the best defenseman in the league. The big question here is how long they can hold up. Unlike the Buffalo Sabres, these guys basically play the entire game. Faber and Hughes are over 30 minutes per night from Round One. Boldy is at 25:14, Kaprizov at 24:40, and Joel Eriksson Ek at 23:44. Jesper Wallstedt has continued his excellence with a .924 save percentage. As long as none of those guys fall apart this series, they have a chance to upend Colorado, especially if Quinn Hughes has more performances like his Game 7 in Dallas.

The Colorado Avalanche, on the other hand, are one of the deepest teams in the league at forward. They swept the Kings without breaking much of a sweat, and their players should all be very rested. None of their guys have been close to playing as many minutes as the top guys in Minnesota. And why would they? It often feels like anyone on that team can score a big goal. Running Nathan MacKinnon, Brock Nelson, Nazem Kadri, and Jack Drury down the middle, with Gabriel Landeskog and Nicolas Roy also available to take shifts at center, the Avalanche have two teams’ worth of centers on their roster. Add on a great defense led by Cale Makar, with a Hall of Famer in Brent Burns eating his competition alive on the third pairing, it’s not hard to see how former Devil Scott Wedgewood had a .950 save percentage in four games against a team like Los Angeles. They have to turn it up a bit now, but they have an advantage.

Vegas Golden Knights (P1/4) vs. Anaheim Ducks (P3/6)

The Vegas Golden Knights handled the Utah Mammoth in six games, largely driven by that top line of Ivan Barbashev, Jack Eichel, and Pavel Dorofeyev and the second line of Mitch Marner, Brett Howden, and Mark Stone. Tomas Hertl, relegated to third-line duty, has not been too impactful so far. But even if Vegas is not as deep as they once were up front, their top scorers and their top two defensive pairings can easily carry them to the Conference Finals. Shea Theodore and Noah Hanifin have brought some production through six, though newcomer Rasmus Andersson has not yet found his offensive stride in Vegas. We’ll see if Carter Hart can hold up his end of the bargain.

The Anaheim Ducks certainly caught Edmonton at a good time. They do have a good young core in Jackson LaCombe, Leo Carlsson, and Cutter Gauthier along with older scorers in Mikael Granlund, Troy Terry, Alex Killorn, and Chris Krieder. They have a decent top end of the roster, but their defense and goaltending has generally been awful. Winning round one with an .876 team save percentage, I have to wonder if Ville Husso starts taking games from Lukas Dostal this series. The Ducks were certainly benefactors of a lot of loser points and overtime wins this regular season, and I think they go the way of the Flyers here by being knocked out by more of a machine in Vegas.

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With that, thank you for reading! Let’s keep this going.