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Oilers' Leon Draisaitl scores OT winner again, beat Panthers 5-4 in Game 4 originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Leon Draisaitl scored in overtime for the fourth time this playoffs, and the Edmonton Oilers beat the Florida Panthers 5-4 in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final on Thursday night to tie the series, erasing a three-goal deficit and bouncing back after allowing the late tying goal.

Jake Walman gave the Oilers their first lead with 6:24 left in the third period, before Sam Reinhart scored with 19.5 seconds left to send it to overtime. Three of the first four games of this final have needed extra time to be settled, the first time that has happened since 2013 and fifth time in NHL history.

Draisaitl’s goal 11:18 into OT — the fourth session of extra hockey between these teams — sent the series back to Western Canada all even. Game 5 of what’s turning into a classic back-and-forth series between two hockey heavyweights is Saturday night in Edmonton.

The Oilers became the first road team to rally from down three to win a game in the final since the Montreal Canadiens against the Seattle Metropolitans in 1919. Only six teams have come back from down three in the final in NHL history, the last time in 2006.

Edmonton is very much in it now, even after it looked like it would be blown out of the series. The Oilers fell behind 3-0 in the first period on a pair of goals by Matthew Tkachuk and another with 41.7 seconds left from Anton Lundell, which could have been a back-breaker.

Coach Kris Knoblauch pulled Stuart Skinner after his starter allowed those three goals on 17 shots in the first, when the ice was tilted against him and his teammates did not have much of a pushback. In went Calvin Pickard, the journeyman backup who won all six of his starts this playoffs before getting injured.

Pickard made some acrobatic saves, stopping the first 18 shots he faced and paving the way for a once-in-a-century comeback. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored on Edmonton’s first power play, Darnell Nurse beat Sergei Bobrovsky with another shot up high and Vasily Podkolzin made it 3-all with less than five minutes left in the second.

With Draisaitl in the penalty box to start the third, Oilers were on their heels for several minutes and relied on Pickard to keep the score tied. He turned aside every shot he faced until Walman fired the puck past Bobrovsky to silence a vast majority of the crowd and incite a roar out of the Edmonton fans among those in attendance along with Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce.

Panthers fans had one more chance to cheer when Reinhart tied it late. Then Draisaitl quieted them again.

With Hockey Hall of Famers Wayne Gretzky, Jaromir Jagr and Henrik Lundqvist also in the building, the Oilers made sure they would not go quietly and fall behind 3-1 in the final like they did last year. They forced Game 7 then but ultimately fell short, with Florida winning the Cup for the first time in franchise history.

Now each of these teams is a couple of victories away from being champions.

Game 5 at Rogers Place is set for Saturday at 8 p.m. ET, 5 p.m. PT.

With the NHL Draft and free agency approaching fast, the NHL trade market is beginning to come into focus. 

And it appears that there won't be too many sellers on the market. That is, except one.

According to NHL insider Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic during an appearance on TSN 1050, the Pittsburgh Penguins are the only "true sellers" on the market this summer, while most other teams that finished near the bottom of the league standings are looking to improve.

If this is the case, that should put the Penguins in a prime position to sell off some of their veteran talent for a better return.

Presumably, Pittsburgh's three biggest trade targets are forwards Bryan Rust and Rickard Rakell as well as defenseman Erik Karlsson. Rust and Rakell each had 30-plus goal seasons for the Penguins in 2024-25, as Rust finished with 31 goals and 65 points while Rakell had 35 goals and 70 points - both primarily playing alongside Sidney Crosby on the top line.

Karlsson, 35, recorded 11 goals and 53 points to go along with a minus-24 last season, and his name has been in the rumor mill for a while.

Penguins Facing Big Decision With Star Forward The Pittsburgh Penguins will be a team to watch very closely this off-season. After missing the playoffs for the third year in a row, there has naturally been speculation that the Metropolitan Division club will make changes to their roster. 

Pittsburgh has already accrued more draft capital than any other NHL team for the next three seasons, as they have a total of 30 picks - including 18 selections within the first three rounds and 10 within the first two.

Given that the Penguins are in a "transitional" period, GM/POHO Kyle Dubas plans to continue to accrue assets while also trying to leverage some excess capital to acquire young talent. He has mentioned the RFA trade-then-sign market as something he may dabble in if the right situation presents itself.

Nonetheless, the Penguins as the lone "true" sellers in the market should put them in an advantegeous position ahead of the draft, where they are rumored to want to move up.

Should The Penguins Trade Up For Higher Draft Pick?With the month of June in full swing, buzz around the 2025 NHL Entry Draft is heating up.

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Feature Image Credit: David Gonzales-Imagn Images

Following the recent conclusion of the Memorial Cup, the 2024-25 season has officially ended for all the Philadelphia Flyers prospects.

Some prospects saw their stocks within the organization slashed this season, while others either remained neutral or showed signs of positive development as they caravan towards an NHL future with the Flyers.

Our end-of-season Flyers prospects rankings will objectively reflect that progress, or lack thereof, as we crown a new king and give credit where credit is due to a couple of dogs who like to play nice… sometimes.

For the sake of this exercise, we’ll name only the top 25 Flyers prospects, as anything more will include graduating or underachieving players without a clear path to a future in the organization. Note that these players have been ranked on their upside as well as projected NHL contribution.

Tier 1: Starter, Regular NHL Contributor

No. 1: Egor Zavragin, G

Egor Zavragin is the king of Flyers prospects at the end of the 2024-25 season. In 43 KHL games, his first season in Russia’s top league, Zavragin went 20-14-3 with a 2.50 GAA, a .917 save percentage, and four shutouts. Still just 19 years old, Zavragin added a 10-5-0 record in the Gagarin Cup playoffs to the tune of a 2.29 GAA, a .918 save percentage, and two shutouts. He was even better under pressure!

The Flyers’ former third-round pick is already borderline dominant in the KHL in his teen years, making him an easy choice for No. 1 in these rankings.

No. 2: Spencer Gill, RHD

Spencer Gill was drafted later than Oliver Bonk was and scored fewer points this season, but is rated higher. Why? For me, the answer is simple.

Neither defenseman will be a scorer at the NHL level, and Gill is bigger and meaner, making him a more friendly projection for the role they will play with the Flyers.

During training camp, I was blown away by Gill’s pace of play, nastiness, defensive stick, and tenacity. It’s a shame that his season ended prematurely due to a reported broken ankle, but I’m excited to see the progress he’s made over the last year at the Flyers Training Center this summer.

No. 3: Oliver Bonk, RHD

Back-to-back OHL champion and Memorial Cup winner: Oliver Bonk just wins. I’m not sure how good he’ll be defensively or what the offense will look like, but he has all the tools needed to become a middle-pair NHL defender down the road. That could happen sooner than later if all goes well.

No. 4: Denver Barkey, LW

Dog.

No. 5: Jett Luchanko, C

Jett Luchanko, like Denver Barkey, is a high-energy forward who can make plays offensively and plays with good details. The difference is, Luchanko was drafted 13th, while Barkey snuck into the third round of 2023.

Luchanko’s D+1 year was a marginal improvement on his draft year, and some of that is due to the Guelph Storm selling off all their talent aside from him. Plus, Luchanko played for them, Canada, the Flyers, and the Lehigh Valley Phantoms this year. He needs stability and people to play with, and I’m concerned with his shooting still. That said, I’m not out on Luchanko yet, but I would like to see more.

Flyers Mock Draft: Expert Predicts Philly's Best-Case ScenarioThe Philadelphia Flyers still hold the sixth pick in the 2025 NHL Draft, but this expert's latest mock draft says that's not such a bad thing after all.

For me, Barkey is the better all-around prospect at this time because of that.

No. 6: Nikita Grebenkin, LW

Tier 2: NHL Contributor, But to What Degree?

No. 7: Alex Bump, LW

No. 8: Carson Bjarnason, G

No. 9: Helge Grans, RHD

I’m a big fan of Helge Grans and think that he can beat out Emil Andrae and Egor Zamula for an NHL roster spot with the Flyers this fall.

He’s 6-foot-3, skates like a gazelle, can move the puck with ease, and makes physical plays when necessary. The 23-year-old still has time on his side and just had his most productive AHL season, by far, since 2021-22.

If Grans can put it all together, he can easily steal a roster spot in the wake of Rasmus Ristolainen’s triceps injury. That could be all the Flyers need to be forced into making a tough decision down the road.

No. 10: Emil Andrae, LHD

No. 11: Aleksei Kolosov, G

Tier 3: Potential NHL Contributor

No. 12: Jack Berglund, C/LW

No. 13: Ethan Samson, RHD

I didn’t care much for Ethan Samson’s performance in camp last year, but the former sixth-round pick really opened some eyes this year, mine included.

Samson doubled his offensive output from a year ago, jumping from just 12 points in 63 games to a more respectable 24 in 69 games. At 6-foot-1, 181 pounds, Samson isn’t the biggest guy on the ice, but he’s not afraid to play with a physical edge.

It’s hard to imagine him leapfrogging Gill or Bonk down the road, but in a thin Tier 3, Samson is showing some signs of life and could eventually be a No. 7 defender at the NHL level.

No. 14: Cole Knuble, RW/C

After an underwhelming D+1 season that saw him score just nine goals and 20 points in 36 NCAA games with Notre Dame, Knuble quietly finished 2024-25 with 12 goals and 39 points in 34 games.

Flyers Mock Draft 3.0: A Bold Trade and the NHL Scouting CombineThe Philadelphia Flyers, as expected, were one of the busiest teams at the NHL Scouting Combine, giving some clues of their intentions leading up to the 2025 NHL Draft later this month.

Knuble, the son of former Flyers forward Mike Knuble, quietly out-produced Alex Bump (1.15 PPG vs. Bump’s 1.12.)

I think Bump plays with more offensive poise, but Knuble’s hockey sense and increasingly refined details are helping him find success in the NCAA. I wouldn’t write him off just yet.

No. 15: Alexis Gendron, RW

No. 16: Hunter McDonald, LHD

Tier 4: May or May Not Make an NHL Roster

No. 17: Alex Ciernik, RW

No. 18: Zayde Wisdom, RW

No. 19: Samu Tuomaala, RW

Samu Tuomaala is struggling to both produce and stay healthy, and I think it has significantly hampered his development and crushed his chances of making the Flyers.

The 22-year-old Finn was a candidate to sneak onto the roster last fall before suffering an injury, which came on the heels of a season-ending injury from the season prior.

Then, Tuomaala suffered another injury during this season that sidelined him from March 1. In 46 games, the speedster was a team-worst -19 and scored only 11 goals before his season ended.

It’s hard to imagine Tuomaala becoming anything more than a bottom-six energy guy with a good shot, but if I want a bottom-six energy guy, I prefer Zayde Wisdom, who just had an excellent and potentially career-saving season.

After all, they say the best ability is availability…

No. 20: Karsen Dorwart, C

No. 21: Heikki Ruohonen, C

Heikki Ruohonen looked like a nice late find for the Flyers with the 107th pick last year based on some strong international production with Finland and the Kiekko-Espoo U20s. The Harvard commit played in North America for the first time this season, scoring 16 goals and 39 points in 49 games for the USHL’s Dubuque Fighting Saints.

Ruohonen finished sixth in scoring among D+1 NHL-drafted USHL skaters this season, though it’s worth noting that his 0.8 points per game ranked third in that group. Will Zellers was the only one with more than a point per game, so it’s hard to penalize Ruohonen for his so-so production. I like his potential as a future fleet-footed bottom-six center with that prototypical 6-foot-2, 200-pound frame.

No. 22: Massimo Rizzo, F

No. 23: Noah Powell, RW

No. 24: Devin Kaplan, RW

No. 25: Ty Murchison, LHD

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It’s no secret that Kent Hughes and the Montreal Canadiens are on the hunt for a couple of essential pieces this Summer, a second-line center and a right-shot defenseman, or at the very least a defenseman that can play on the right side. There have been rumblings about interest in a few players, including two New York Islanders players: Bo Horvat and Matthew Barzal.

However, there’s new management in Long Island, gone are the Lou Lamoriello days, and in is former Hab Mathieu Darche. With new management comes a new approach, and while veteran GM Lamoriello was reportedly interested in moving the players mentioned above, Darche is not, according to insider Pierre LeBrun.

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In his latest article for The Athletic, LeBrun reports that Darche has let it be known to his two players that they aren’t going anywhere. The writer also adds that he believes Montreal would have been a team interested in making an offer.

Going after Horvat was a possibility we had mentioned and explored, but we wondered if he would even be available under Darche. According to LeBrun, we were right to wonder.

While the popular saying suggests that there are plenty of other fish in the sea, not all are great catches, and what Hughes and co. are after is not all that common, especially since there are many teams also in the hunt for a top six center.

Marco Rossi and Mason McTavish remain a couple of interesting possibilities to explore for the Canadiens, but the price tag is likely to be relatively high for either of them. 34-year-old free agent Matt Duchene could be an interesting option, while he’s a bit long in the tooth, he still produces at a point-per-game pace. He has already turned down an offer to come to Montreal before signing a massive deal with the Nashville Predators, so it remains to be seen if he could be convinced to come this time around.

Mandatory Credit: Kyle Ross-Imagn Images

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Every time a new NHL coach is hired, we hear about how he’s a perfect fit.

When Marco Sturm was introduced as the 30th coach in Boston Bruins history on Tuesday, he also made it clear that Boston was the right fit for him.

“I didn't want to take my first opportunity and just go for it,” Sturm said. “No, I wanted to be prepared. And yes, I always wanted to come back here, obviously, but I think the timing of it was just perfect, right? Selfishly, I'm glad the Bruins didn't play well last year, because otherwise I wouldn't be here. Let’s be honest.”

That’s pretty candid, especially for a first-time NHL bench boss. 

Sturm’s 302 games played with the Bruins between 2005 and 2010 are a strong sell for the fan base. Here’s a guy who had boots on the ground as Boston transformed from a non-playoff team into a Stanley Cup champion. He skated alongside franchise legends Zdeno Chara and Patrice Bergeron, and Bergeron was on hand at Tuesday’s presser to show his support.

While the new coach talked about how excited his two kids – now young adults – are excited that the family will once again have a home base back in Boston, he has to feel good about the success rate of the coaches that have preceded him.

Look past Joe Sacco, who was strictly an interim placeholder last season. Here’s what you’ve got:

• Jim Montgomery, 2022 to 2024: 2023 Jack Adams Winner, .652 points percentage
• Bruce Cassidy, 2017 to 2022: 2020 Jack Adams Winner, 2023 Stanley Cup champ (with the Vegas Golden Knights), .672 points percentage
• Claude Julien, 2007 to 2017: 2009 Jack Adams Winner, 2011 Stanley Cup champ (Boston Bruins), .614 points percentage

The Bruins are far from perfect, but they’ve put their coaches in positions to succeed for the better part of the last two decades.  

With a new two-year contract extension in hand that will take him through the 2027-28 season, GM Don Sweeney said Tuesday the conversations he held with his large field of 14 head-coaching candidates helped illuminate his club’s shortcomings.

“It can be uncomfortable, in terms of the critical eye that other people are watching your team and breaking down your team and the changes they want to make,” he told reporters. “You have to understand that the position we're in, we didn't execute both at the management level and the coaching level and the player level. So we have to be open to that and the tweaks that coaches want to make.”

The Bruins are going into the Sturm era without a captain in place, after Brad Marchand’s shocking deal at the trade deadline. David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy have worn the A’s for the last two seasons and, as Sturm pointed out Tuesday, are homegrown players who started their careers during the Chara and Bergeron era. 

Having McAvoy back on the blueline following his shoulder injury will be helpful. And at 31, Hampus Lindholm should have plenty of tread left on his tires after he missed the last 65 games of the season due to a knee injury that required surgery. 

While Jeremy Swayman’s unsettled contract situation cast a large black cloud on the Bruins heading into last season, his vibes should be much better after he wrapped up his year with a gold medal for Team USA at the IIHF World Championship last month, giving up just 12 goals in seven games and shutting out Switzerland in the gold medal game. On that team, U.S. right winger Conor Garland also called Bruins D-man Andrew Peeke “so underrated at how hard he played and how strong he was” on a shutdown pair with Brady Skjei.

After they were signed to a couple of the biggest contracts in 2024 free agency, Elias Lindholm and Nikita Zadorov struggled to live up to expectations last season. 

For the second straight year, Pastrnak shone at the Worlds – this time leading the tournament with 15 points and earning best-forward honors. Lindholm was right behind, finishing second with 14 points and joining Pastrnak on the tournament all-star team.

Ever so slowly, the door is cracking open for European coaches to work in the NHL. Sturm’s 938-game playing career certainly gave him name recognition and relationships to build off, but the World Championship stage was where he began to make his name as a coach nearly a decade ago. 

In three seasons at the helm of his native Team Germany, Sturm helped move his national team from an also-ran into a perpetual playoff-round participant as one of the world’s top eight hockey nations.

Then, after helping the Germans win their surprise silver at the 2018 Winter Olympics, Sturm shifted his attention back to North America. Leaving his family behind to join the Los Angeles Kings organization in the fall of 2018, he gained experience as an assistant for three-plus years, then ran the bench of the AHL Ontario Reign for the last three seasons.

“Learning from, especially, from a guy like Todd McLellan, for me, he was the perfect fit – the perfect coach to learn from,” Sturm said. “Sometimes I say, ‘Yeah, now I'm ready,’ or you can hear ‘Marco’s ready,’ but I probably knew the on-the-ice stuff, right? I knew it as a player, a coach. I've seen a lot, and now, getting a lot of information from Todd and how he runs it, how he prepares. That's something I think I wanted to get better at, and I needed someone, I would say, to guide me through it.”

Because they’ve been chasing the Cup for more than a decade, Boston’s prospect pool is thin. But 2019 first-rounder and 2020 second-rounder Mason Lohrei established themselves as regulars last season, and there will be roster space available if any or all of Matthew Poitras, Fraser Minten or Fabian Lysell step up at training camp this fall.

The Bruins also hold the seventh-overall pick in the 2025 draft, their first top-10 selection since they took Dougie Hamilton at No. 9 in 2011. And according to PuckPedia, they’ve got more than $28 million in available cap space this summer, though they will need to take care of some young players. Morgan Geekie, Jakub Lauko, Marat Khusnutdinov, Beecher and Lohrei are all RFAs with arbitration rights. 

When Sturm arrived in Boston in 2005 as one of the key assets coming back in the Joe Thornton trade, it wasn’t exactly love at first sight for the fan base. 

“It was not my fault,” he said. “But I got here and I'm not going to lie, it was difficult because everyone loved Joe.”

Twenty years later, he’ll play a new role while trying to calm today’s choppy waters and guide a similar rise.

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Oilers' Leon Draisaitl scores OT winner again, beat Panthers 5-4 in Game 4 originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Leon Draisaitl scored in overtime for the fourth time this playoffs, and the Edmonton Oilers beat the Florida Panthers 5-4 in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final on Thursday night to tie the series, erasing a three-goal deficit and bouncing back after allowing the late tying goal.

Jake Walman gave the Oilers their first lead with 6:24 left in the third period, before Sam Reinhart scored with 19.5 seconds left to send it to overtime. Three of the first four games of this final have needed extra time to be settled, the first time that has happened since 2013 and fifth time in NHL history.

Draisaitl’s goal 11:18 into OT — the fourth session of extra hockey between these teams — sent the series back to Western Canada all even. Game 5 of what’s turning into a classic back-and-forth series between two hockey heavyweights is Saturday night in Edmonton.

The Oilers became the first road team to rally from down three to win a game in the final since the Montreal Canadiens against the Seattle Metropolitans in 1919. Only six teams have come back from down three in the final in NHL history, the last time in 2006.

Edmonton is very much in it now, even after it looked like it would be blown out of the series. The Oilers fell behind 3-0 in the first period on a pair of goals by Matthew Tkachuk and another with 41.7 seconds left from Anton Lundell, which could have been a back-breaker.

Coach Kris Knoblauch pulled Stuart Skinner after his starter allowed those three goals on 17 shots in the first, when the ice was tilted against him and his teammates did not have much of a pushback. In went Calvin Pickard, the journeyman backup who won all six of his starts this playoffs before getting injured.

Pickard made some acrobatic saves, stopping the first 18 shots he faced and paving the way for a once-in-a-century comeback. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored on Edmonton’s first power play, Darnell Nurse beat Sergei Bobrovsky with another shot up high and Vasily Podkolzin made it 3-all with less than five minutes left in the second.

With Draisaitl in the penalty box to start the third, Oilers were on their heels for several minutes and relied on Pickard to keep the score tied. He turned aside every shot he faced until Walman fired the puck past Bobrovsky to silence a vast majority of the crowd and incite a roar out of the Edmonton fans among those in attendance along with Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce.

Panthers fans had one more chance to cheer when Reinhart tied it late. Then Draisaitl quieted them again.

With Hockey Hall of Famers Wayne Gretzky, Jaromir Jagr and Henrik Lundqvist also in the building, the Oilers made sure they would not go quietly and fall behind 3-1 in the final like they did last year. They forced Game 7 then but ultimately fell short, with Florida winning the Cup for the first time in franchise history.

Now each of these teams is a couple of victories away from being champions.

Game 5 at Rogers Place is set for Saturday at 8 p.m. ET, 5 p.m. PT.