NHL Executives Pick Avalanche, Stars As Stanley Cup Favorites
The race to get in final brackets before the start of round one isn’t exclusive to the fans. Some NHL front office staff and executives also have fun with predicting the Stanley Cup Champions recently captured by Harman Dayal and Chris Johnston of The Athletic. They polled nine anonymous NHL front office executives and senior staff to find their playoff favorites. Even when prompted to include three-or-four Stanley Cup favorites, many of the voters had two teams that stood out from the rest – the Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars.
It is no surprise to see Colorado top the list after an unstoppable regular season. The Avalanche finished the year with the most points (55), most goals scored (298), and fewest goals allowed (197), in the NHL. Captain Nathan MacKinnon won the scoring race with 53 goals and ranked third with 127 points in 80 games played. His winger, Martin Necas, wasn’t far behind with the first 100-point season of his career. Goaltender Scott Wedgewood also led the NHL with a .921 save percentage. He backstopped a roster that was strong from top-to-bottom and only got better with the addition of Nazem Kadri, one executive told Dayal and Johnston. The Avalanche will start their playoff race against the Los Angeles Kings and stand as the team-to-beat in the Western Conference.
The only team to rival Colorado’s season was Dallas. The Stars were the only other Western Conference team to reach 50 wins and finished the year with the second-fewest goals allowed (222). They were well-rounded all year long under the lead of returning head coach Glen Gulutzan and surging forward Jason Robertson and Wyatt Johnston. Robertson finished the year with 45 goals and 96 points while Johnston had a breakout season with 45 goals and 86 points. The duo dominated momentum when they were on the ice, supported by speedy winger Mavrik Bourque in a top-six role. That was the kind of depth that helped Dallas stand out, with Sam Steel and Justin Hryckowian also offering effective roles throughout the lineup. Starter Jake Oettinger also finished third in the league with 35 wins but coupled it with a .899 save percentage that was closer to league average. With every lineup spot filled and healthy, Dallas could be a dangerous playoff team. Unfortunately, they might also face the toughest path to the Stanley Cup Finals – likely having to go through both the Minnesota Wild and Avalanche to get out of the West.
The red-hot Buffalo Sabres topped The Athletic’s tier of dark horse candidates in their return to the postseason. Buffalo is hot at the right time – having posted a 15-4-3 record since March 1st. Their .750 win percentage is second to only the St. Louis Blues’ .761 in that span. The Sabres have also ranked third in goals-per-game (3.64) in that timeframe, behind the Philadelphia Flyers (3.88) and Carolina Hurricanes (3.83). Their run to the playoffs has been spearheaded by Gold Medal-forward Tage Thompson and captain Rasmus Dahlin, who finished with 81 and 74 points respectively. Buffalo’s offense stocked every line this season, marked by 43 points from Zach Benson and 39 points from Peyton Krebs. They also found stability in net thanks to a .910 save percentage from Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen in 35 games and a .907 from Alex Lyon in 36 games. That might be enough to spark a Cup run. First, Buffalo will have to prove their place back in the postseason with their first round-one win since 2007.
Photo courtesy of Timothy T. Ludwig-Imagn Images.
At Least Eight Teams To Carry Overage Penalty Into 2026-27
The NHL adds contract performance bonuses to the salary cap hit of each team at the end of the season. Any price over the salary cap is carried over to the team’s cap hit in the following season. Performance bonuses are broken up into two categories. A-level bonuses are paid out for reaching set numbers of goals, assists, points, plus-minus, or time on ice per-game. End-of-season accolades, such as an All-Star or All-Team nomination, are also A-level bonuses. B-level bonuses are worth up to $2MM and can include leaderboard rankings, minimum stats reached, or award wins. More details about performance bonuses can be found on PuckPedia.
At least NHL teams will carry an overage penalty into the 2026-27 season per PuckPedia. That number is down from 11 in the 2025-26 season and 15, an NHL record, in the 2024-25 season. This year’s list includes:
New York Islanders: $3.5MM
The Islanders paid out every last bit of rookie phenom Matthew Schaefer‘s potential $3.5MM performance bonus. He was awarded $1MM for his per-game scoring and ice time, then earned an additional $2.5MM by finishing in the top-10 of defensemen scoring. The Islanders utilized long-term injured reserve to exceed the salary cap at the end of the season. That will leave all of Schaefer’s performance bonus as overage headed into next season.
Colorado Avalanche: $2.29MM
Colorado lands an overage penalty thanks to Brent Burns‘ performance on an age-35+ contract. Burns had a potential for $4MM in performance bonuses on his deal and earned $3MM of that by playing in 10 games this season. Colorado utilized LTIR earlier in the year but finished the season with a little more than $700K in cap space. That space will help offset the cost of Burns’ bonuses just a bit, though Colorado will still carry a penalty into 2026-27.
Dallas Stars: $2.08-$3.08MM
The Dallas Stars paid out $80K in bonus to Justin Hryckowian for reaching 70 games this season. Captain Jamie Benn also earned $2MM of a potential $3MM in bonuses for playing in 50 games. That includes appearing in the season finale, which netted him $500K on its own. Benn has the potential to earn an additional $1MM in bonus – $500K each if Dallas wins the Western Conference Finals and Stanley Cup. That will sit the Stars with just over $2MM in overage currently and the potential for $3MM if they win it all.
Montreal Canadiens: $1.93-2.07MM
The Montreal Canadiens finished the year with less than $50K in cap space, in part thanks to their mid-season acquisition of Phillip Danault. Rookie Ivan Demidov landed $1MM in bonuses, of a potential $2MM, for his per-game scoring and ice time totals. Oliver Kapanen also earned $250K in bonuses for his per-game totals. He could earn an additional $137.5K if he is named to the NHL All-Rookie Team – a feat that seems unlikely with rookie forwards like Demidov, Beckett Sennecke, Benjamin Kindel, and Jimmy Snuggerud also in the running. Montreal also paid out $400K in bonuses to star defenseman Lane Hutson for a variety of reasons and $80K to rookie goalie Jacob Fowler for reaching 10 games. They will sit just shy of $2MM in overage penalty and could crest that mark if Kapanen earns all-team honors.
Ottawa Senators: $0-1.41MM
The Ottawa Senators will have to sign some big checks if they go on a playoff run. They have already paid out $1MM to Claude Giroux, and $750K to Lars Eller, for playing in 60 games and reaching the postseason. Giroux will earn an additional $500K if Ottawa wins in the first round – a cost that would be absorbed by their end-of-year cap space. But Giroux and Eller will also be eligible for $250K in bonuses if Ottawa wins the second round, and Giroux can net an additional $500K for wins in each of the Eastern Conference Finals and Stanley Cup Finals. That will leave Ottawa with four potential outcomes: no overage penalty, $414K in overage penalty (third-round loss), $914K in overage penalty (Stanley Cup Final loss), or $1.414MM in overage penalty (Stanley Cup win).
New Jersey Devils: $1.25MM
The Devils paid out two bonuses that pushed them into the red. Young defenseman Simon Nemec earned $750K in bonuses for his scoring, plus-minus, and ice time per-game totals. Winger Evgenii Dadonov landed $500K for scoring at least one point, $250K for playing in 10 games, and an additional $250K for reaching 20 games. He did not play in his 20th game of the season until March 29th, earning the 37 year old a late-season chip. Now, the Devils will carry more than $1MM in overage penalty into next season.
San Jose Sharks: $918.7K
The San Jose Sharks finished the year with $4.8MM in cap space but still land on the list of overage penalties. Much of that is thanks to their young stars. Macklin Celebrini earned every bit of his $3.5MM in potential bonuses with his franchise record-setting scoring. Will Smith earned $1MM, and William Eklund earned $450K, in bonuses for their scoring and ice time per-game. Those marks also earned Sam Dickinson $250K and Collin Graf reached his contract cap of $500K in bonuses. That amounts to $5.425MM, pushing the Sharks into the red for next season.
Edmonton Oilers: $250K
The Edmonton Oilers will face their second-straight season with $250K in overage penalty next year. This time, it is a result of rookie Matthew Savoie, who earned $250K with his ice time per-game. Edmonton finished the year utilizing LTIR to exceed the salary cap.
Florida Panthers: $150K
Defenseman Jeff Petry earned $150K in bonuses for reaching 50 games played with the Florida Panthers before the Trade Deadline. He earned an additional $60K for reaching 60 games, though that bonus came after his trade to the Minnesota Wild.
Photo courtesy of Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports
Stars Sign Nils Lundkvist To Two-Year Extension
The Stars announced that they’ve signed defenseman Nils Lundkvist to a two-year extension worth $1.75MM annually. That’s a total value of $3.5MM for the righty, who could have gone to arbitration this summer.
Lundkvist, 25, just wrapped up his fourth regular season in Dallas. The offensive-minded Swede was the 28th overall pick by the Rangers back in 2018. After finally coming over from Luleå in the Swedish Hockey League three years later, he had a rocky first season in New York that saw him split time between the NHL and AHL without having great results in either. Without a clear path to a full-time NHL job, Lundkvist quickly requested a trade and ended up in Dallas for his second NHL season.
Lundkvist got his wish and has remained in the Stars’ NHL rotation ever since, albeit in a depth role. His development has been a slow burn, routinely getting long looks in regular-season action before falling out of the picture come playoff time. While Dallas has now made the playoffs all four seasons during Lundkvist’s tenure, he didn’t log a single appearance for them in either the 2023 or 2025 postseason, although the latter was due to shoulder surgery.
However, as team radio analyst Bruce LeVine relays, the organization is extremely pleased with Lundkvist’s work this season. He hasn’t been a healthy scratch at any point – his 52 games played on the year were the result of missing time with a lower-body injury early in the season – and put up 11 points with a +12 rating while averaging a career-high 16:29 per game. He’s far from a physical threat and doesn’t factor in on either special teams unit, but he’s used his great skating acumen to work his way up the even-strength depth chart.
Lundkvist actually spent most of this season on the club’s second pairing with Thomas Harley, playing as their #2 right-side D-man with Miro Heiskanen on his offside on the top pairing. Trade deadline pickup Tyler Myers has slotted in behind Lundkvist at even strength. In over 500 minutes together, Harley and Lundkvist controlled 52.9% of expected goals and outscored opponents 27-17. Among pairings with at least 500 minutes together, Harley and Lundkvist ranked fifth in 5-on-5 goal share at 61.4%, per MoneyPuck.
Even if the Stars aren’t getting much point production out of him due to a lack of power-play time, he’s proven to be a valuable complement at even strength to help advance the play to their forwards. At a sub-$2MM cap hit, they’ll be getting spectacular value out of Lundkvist for the next two seasons if he can keep that up.
That’s important, as the Stars’ cap situation is in a tough spot for the second offseason in a row. With Lundkvist’s deal registered, they’re down to $13.19MM in projected space with four roster spots to fill, per PuckPedia. Virtually all of that will need to go to pending RFA and leading scorer Jason Robertson, who’s projected to cost nearly $12MM annually on an eight-year extension, according to AFP Analytics.
That’ll leave space for just one more contract as things stand – likely a bridge deal for Mavrik Bourque. However, he’s arbitration-eligible, so lowballing him from the jump comes with significant risk. Even still, that leaves Dallas with next to no flexibility to start the season, and they wouldn’t be able to carry a full roster. It’s likely that at least one cap-clearing move – likely ridding themselves of #7 defender Ilya Lyubushkin‘s $3.25MM cap charge – will be incoming.
Image courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images.
Maple Leafs Interviewing Mats Sundin For Hockey Operations Role
The Maple Leafs will be interviewing Mats Sundin, the franchise’s all-time leading scorer, for a role in their hockey operations department as soon as today, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. It doesn’t appear he’s being considered for either Toronto’s general manager or the president of hockey operations vacancy. However, he could be brought on board in an advisory role, “or something along those lines,” Friedman writes.
Sundin hasn’t been technically affiliated with the Leafs since the penultimate season of his playing career in 2007-08. An unrestricted free agent the following summer, he took several weeks into the 2008-09 season to decide on his future before ultimately signing a one-year deal with the Canucks. He retired the following offseason.
Since then, Sundin’s management resume has only gained some footnotes. He has no club experience in the front office and has only worked with Sweden’s men’s national team as a consultant on two occasions – first for the 2013 World Championship and again for the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. That 2013 team, led by the Sedin twins, an in-his-prime Loui Eriksson, and a young Gabriel Landeskog, landed Sweden its first gold medal at the tournament in seven years.
Sundin’s franchise records could stand for a while yet, pending Auston Matthews‘ long-term future in Toronto. The first-ballot Hall-of-Fame center and one of the NHL’s 100 all-time greatest players according to their centennial list in 2017, he was the first European ever to go first overall in the draft when the Nordiques selected him in 1989. He ended up in Toronto five years later in a blockbuster deal and, over the next 13 years, put up 420 goals, 567 assists, and 987 points in 981 games in a Leafs sweater. A perennial All-Star, Matthews has passed him in the goals department but still has 207 points to go before taking that crown away from him.
Teams taking this path to get a well-respected player but inexperienced executive into higher-leverage front office roles is becoming more commonplace. The Blues laid out their succession plan for outgoing GM Doug Armstrong several years ago, appointing Alexander Steen as a special assistant under Armstrong in 2024 with him scheduled to replace him in the GM’s chair this offseason. There’s a real chance an initial advisory role for Sundin could lead to something bigger in a few years, if he’s open to it.
Image courtesy of Per Haljestam-Imagn Images.
Canucks Fire Patrik Allvin
The Canucks have relieved general manager Patrik Allvin of his duties, per a team announcement. Darren Dreger of TSN was first on it this morning after Thomas Ros of Sweden’s Aftonbladet said overnight that the Canucks made the decision around last night’s season finale to let him go.
For now, that’s the only change. The futures of first-year head coach Adam Foote and president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford are also up in the air after a woeful season in Vancouver finally came to an end last night with a 6-1 loss to the Oilers. Vancouver’s 25-49-8 record left them as the worst in the NHL by a 14-point margin, with their .354 points percentage serving as the franchise’s worst result since the 1998-99 campaign that rewarded them with the assets to draft franchise cornerstones Daniel Sedin and Henrik Sedin.
Ideally, the trials of this season will yield another franchise forward for the Canucks – whether that’s Gavin McKenna or another Swede in Ivar Stenberg. However, Allvin won’t be the one entrusted to steer the team through the early stages of that next era.
Allvin just finished his fourth full season in the GM’s chair in Vancouver and fifth overall. After Rutherford was hired as POHO midway through the 2021-22 season in the wake of Jim Benning‘s firing, he served as interim GM for a few weeks before eventually hiring Allvin to fill the role. The duo had worked together previously with the Penguins, where Allvin had served as director of various scouting departments from 2012 to 2021 before being promoted to assistant GM.
Since Allvin’s appointment on Jan. 26, 2022, the Canucks have a record of 173-150-45 (.531). That’s 23rd out of 33 NHL franchises (the Coyotes are tracked separately from the Mammoth) during that time.
The tinge of disappointment in Allvin and Rutherford’s tenure will be most felt by a roller-coaster graph in team success. A rebuild that failed to get off the ground in several years under Benning finally seemed to do so under Allvin’s direction in 2023-24. After hiring a new bench boss in Rick Tocchet and largely staying the course with his group, the Canucks exploded for a 50-win, 109-point season and their first division title in 11 years. That also yielded just their third playoff berth in that span, driving the eventual conference champion Oilers to seven games in the second round despite injuries forcing them to ice third-string goaltender Arturs Silovs from Game 4 of the first round onward.
Yet the Canucks have been in a free fall ever since. They failed to retain multiple key unrestricted free agents the following offseason, and while they netted some solid depth replacements like Jake DeBrusk, the team couldn’t recover. Their All-Star starter, Thatcher Demko, being limited to 43 starts over the last two seasons certainly didn’t help matters, but a slow degradation in their defensive structure – followed by a full-blown collapse once they failed to work out an extension with Tocchet and let him go following the 2024-25 season – destroyed any hope of being able to compensate for Demko’s absence.
In Tocchet’s second and final season, the team was salvageable. The loss of finishing talent in free agency was felt in an already defense-heavy system, but improved goaltending could have steered the Canucks back toward the playoff picture. Under Foote, though, a roster that was designed for Tocchet’s defense-first system imploded. The team allowed the most goals per game (3.83) by a wide margin, had the league’s worst penalty kill at 71.5%, and the second-most expected goals against per 60 at 5-on-5 at 2.80, per MoneyPuck.
Despite acquiring several young assets when the team was essentially forced into trading franchise defender Quinn Hughes to the Wild amid this season’s free-fall, Allvin’s middle-of-the-road drafting has only left the Canucks with a league-average prospect pool, Scott Wheeler of The Athletic opines. That will obviously get a jumpstart with the best odds at the first overall pick this June, plus three other selections they’ve accumulated through the first two rounds, but there’s still some work for Allvin’s successor to do before exiting their retool becomes a viable strategy.
As for who that successor might be, there’s a strong feeling it could be an internal promotion. The Canucks have denied other teams permission to speak to their assistant/AHL GM, longtime NHL center Ryan Johnson. He’s been with the organization since 2013, first as a development coach, before working his way up the ladder over the next decade-plus.
NHL Releases 2026 First Round Schedule
After last night’s results locked in the two Western Conference playoff series that had yet to be decided, the NHL announced the full schedule matrix for the first round of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs after releasing select Game 1 information earlier in the day. Things will kick off Saturday afternoon, with only Friday serving as an off day between the regular and postseason.
Here’s the full day-by-day schedule for the first round, with game times in Central and TV/streaming information in the United States:
Saturday, April 18
2:00 p.m.: Senators at Hurricanes, Game 1 (ESPN)
4:30 p.m.: Wild at Stars, Game 1 (ESPN)
7:00 p.m.: Flyers at Penguins, Game 1 (ESPN)
Sunday, April 19
2:00 p.m.: Kings at Avalanche, Game 1 (TNT, truTV, HBO Max)
4:45 p.m.: Canadiens at Lightning, Game 1 (TNT, truTV, HBO Max)
6:30 p.m.: Bruins at Sabres, Game 1 (ESPN)
9:00 p.m.: Mammoth at Golden Knights, Game 1 (ESPN)
Monday, April 20
6:00 p.m.: Flyers at Penguins, Game 2 (ESPN)
6:30 p.m.: Senators at Hurricanes, Game 2 (ESPN2)
8:30 p.m.: Wild at Stars, Game 2 (ESPN)
9:00 p.m.: Ducks at Oilers, Game 1 (ESPN2)
Tuesday, April 21
6:00 p.m.: Canadiens at Lightning, Game 2 (ESPN2)
6:30 p.m.: Bruins at Sabres, Game 2 (ESPN)
9:00 p.m.: Kings at Avalanche, Game 2 (ESPN)
Wednesday, April 22
6:00 p.m.: Penguins at Flyers, Game 3 (ESPN)
8:30 p.m.: Stars at Wild, Game 3 (TNT, truTV, HBO Max)
9:00 p.m.: Ducks at Oilers, Game 2 (TBS, HBO Max)
Thursday, April 23
6:00 p.m.: Sabres at Bruins, Game 3 (TNT, truTV, HBO Max)
6:30 p.m.: Hurricanes at Senators, Game 3 (TBS, HBO Max)
9:00 p.m.: Avalanche at Kings, Game 3 (TNT, truTV, HBO Max)
Friday, April 24
6:00 p.m.: Lightning at Canadiens, Game 3 (TNT, truTV, HBO Max)
9:00 p.m.: Oilers at Ducks, Game 3 (TNT, truTV, HBO Max)
Saturday, April 25
2:00 p.m.: Senators at Hurricanes, Game 4 (TBS, truTV, HBO Max)
4:30 p.m.: Stars at Wild, Game 4 (TBS, truTV, HBO Max)
7:00 p.m.: Penguins at Flyers, Game 4 (TBS, truTV, HBO Max)
Sunday, April 26
1:00 p.m.: Sabres at Bruins, Game 4 (TNT, truTV, HBO Max)
3:30 p.m.: Avalanche at Kings, Game 4 (TNT, truTV, HBO Max)
6:00 p.m.: Lightning at Canadiens, Game 4 (ESPN)
8:30 p.m.: Oilers at Ducks, Game 4 (ESPN)
Times for Games 5-7 TBD
Monday, April 27
Senators at Hurricanes, Game 5
Flyers at Penguins, Game 5
Golden Knights at Mammoth, Game 4 (ESPN)
Tuesday, April 28
Bruins at Sabres, Game 5
Wild at Stars, Game 5
Ducks at Oilers, Game 5
Wednesday, April 29
Canadiens at Lightning, Game 5
Penguins at Flyers, Game 6
Kings at Avalanche, Game 5
Mammoth at Golden Knights, Game 5
Thursday, April 30
Hurricanes at Senators, Game 6
Stars at Wild, Game 6
Oilers at Ducks, Game 6
Friday, May 1
Sabres at Bruins, Game 6
Lightning at Canadiens, Game 6
Avalanche at Kings, Game 6
Golden Knights at Mammoth, Game 6
Saturday, May 2
Senators at Hurricanes, Game 7
Flyers at Penguins, Game 7
Wild at Stars, Game 7
Ducks at Oilers, Game 7
Sunday, May 3
Bruins at Sabres, Game 7
Canadiens at Lightning, Game 7
Kings at Avalanche, Game 7
Mammoth at Golden Knights, Game 7
Devils Name Sunny Mehta General Manager
This evening the New Jersey Devils shared that Sunny Mehta has been named their new general manager, sixth in franchise history, replacing Tom Fitzgerald.
Mehta, 48, had been serving as Assistant General Manager and Director of Analytics for the Florida Panthers since 2023, helping lead them to a level of unprecedented success with back-to-back Stanley Cups. He returns to Newark, the first NHL job of his career, where he’d been from 2014-2018 as Director of Hockey Analytics.
Having grown up in Wyckoff, New Jersey as a young Devils fan, Mehta’s path to leading an NHL franchise is a fascinating one. An analytics wizard, he did play the game, a varsity skater for Ramapo High School in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey. Still, it’s quite different from the previous GM Fitzgerald, and his over 1,000 NHL appearances.
After the long-standing Lou Lamoriello era, which spanned across four different decades (1987-2015), New Jersey experienced more change in their front office than usual, with Ray Shero and Fitzgerald both coming and going since. Now Mehta is back into the fold, bridging the gap having worked with the team back in an entirely different era, where he’ll hope to clean up an impressive roster which has some flaws.
With his playing career over after high school, Mehta attended the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music, studying Jazz Guitar and graduating in 2000. He became a professional musician, also a successful poker player who co-authored successful books on strategy within the card game. Eventually obtaining his Master’s in Data Science from City University of New York, needless to say, Mehta’s background is fully evident of a departure from typical within the National Hockey League.
Guitar or cards aside, Mehta’s hockey resume speaks for itself. Still under age 50, he is a two-time Stanley Cup Champion, spearheading the first full-time analytics department in the NHL. If there’s any doubt on his ability to evaluate talent, Mehta’s input helped New Jersey land one of the biggest draft steals in recent memory. His model ranked Jesper Bratt as third in the 2016 draft, behind just Auston Matthews and Patrik Laine, the top two picks that year. If anyone shrugged off the analytical guru at the draft table a decade ago, Mehta has the last laugh, as New Jersey eventually heeded his advice, choosing the Swedish winger in the sixth round. Since then, he’s blossomed into a top scorer for the Devils, currently ranking fifth in total points out of 2016 draftees, not bad for 162nd overall.
Moving on to Florida, where he worked alongside general manager Bill Zito, Mehta has received much praise for his impact. Florida’s ability to assemble a perfectly-structured team with a number of savvy moves brought them a level of success nobody could have anticipated a decade ago. Earlier this month, Mehta was outlined in an article by TSN’s Mark Masters, where Panther Mackie Samoskevich said “Everything he touches turns to gold”.
Along with a reunion with a prospect he sought out, Mehta inherits a roster which is mostly intact, for better or for worse. Across their entire forward core, only Evgenii Dadonov and Zack MacEwen are pending unrestricted free agents, neither of whom made an impact this year. It’s much the same on the back end, with only Dennis Cholowski having an expiring contract. In net, Jacob Markström and Jake Allen are locked up for the foreseeable future. The former had his worst professional season in a decade, but the hope will be that the towering Swede can turn it around somehow, although he’s now 36 years old.
The situation presents an intriguing challenge for Mehta, who must shake things up after a disappointing campaign, where his Devils came out hot but fell flat after a series of unfortunate events. None of which were more vexing than top scorer Jack Hughes‘ freak hand injury which happened in a restaurant and cost him 25% of the season. There’s little need for some huge free agent spending spree, nor a massive retool, as few teams offer a one-two punch down the middle as young and formidable as the Devils between Hughes and Nico Hischier.
Mehta’s work will be cut out for him in fixing Fitzgerald’s attempts to supplement the young core, which made sense at the time, but proved futile. Finding a way to move on from at least one of Dougie Hamilton and Timo Meier could be the first order of business, but it’s not an ideal scenario given their trade protection and contracts which are worth $9MM and $8.8MM, respectively. Hamilton was most recently linked to Utah, back in February, as there’s always a market for a tall righty with high offensive abilities, contract aside.
He’ll also have the opportunity to consider a change behind the bench, as head coach Sheldon Keefe‘s future seems to be up in the air. However, the 33-year-old has a modern approach to the game which has parallels to Mehta’s mindset, and Keefe deserves some leniency from a year so lost to injury.
With their season coming to an end back on Tuesday, Mehta will get right to work, with the 2026 draft just over a month away. As of now, he’s projected to have the 11th overall pick, which could shift slightly after tonight’s final games, or if he is dealt a favorable hand at the draft lottery on May 5.
Panthers’ Aleksander Barkov To Play At World Championship
Florida Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov missed the entirety of the 2025-26 season with a knee injury sustained during training camp. On the other side of a losing year for the Panthers, Barkov is finally nearing a return to game action. The star center is expected to play for Team Finland at the 2026 World Championship, Florida head coach Paul Maurice told George Richards of Florida Hockey Now.
Barkov is a cornerstone piece of every lineup he’s apart of. The 30 year old scored 20 goals and 71 points in 67 games of the 2024-25 NHL season. He capped the year off with 22 points in 23 games en route to a 2025 Stanley Cup championship, the same point total and outcome that he reached in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Barkov was the first European captain to lead his team to back-to-back Stanley Cups.
Routine playoff appearances have kept Barkov from appearing in many of Finland’s international tournaments as of late. He captained the Finns at the 2025 4-Nations Face-Off and scored two points in three games. Outside of that, his last appearance with Finland was at the 2017 World Cup, where he posted no scoring in three games. Barkov has played in two World Championships – marked by 16 points in 17 games – and the 2014 Winter Olympics where he had one point in two games.
Each of those international appearances were on the other side of Barkov’s ascension towards superstardom. He has won three Selke Trophies as the league’s best defensive-forward and consistently earned votes for the Hart Memorial Trophy and Lady Byng Memorial Trophy since his 2017 World Cup appearance. Barkov also won the 2025 King Clancy Memorial Trophy, awarded on the basis of leadership and humanitarian contribution. He also became a franchise owner of the Liiga’s Tappara, part of Finland’s top pro league, in 2020. Barkov has grown into a face of Finnish hockey in North America and routinely rivals point-per-game scoring in the NHL.
It is with the weight of a missed NHL season – and a missed Olympic Games – that Barkov will now enter the 2026 World Championship. He will be among the Finns’ biggest scoring threats and could challenge the most ice time on the team each game. Finland will also lean on Florida’s Anton Lundell and Seattle Kraken winger Kaapo Kakko to bolster their lineup, with much of the country’s top NHL talent headed towards the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Either way, Barkov’s return will be far more than the addition of one more player. It will also give the reigning Cup captain a chance to get back to full speed before the 2026-27 campaign is underway.
Blue Jackets Sign Rick Bowness To One-Year Extension
1:25 p.m.: It’s a one-year extension for Bowness, the team announced.
10:23 a.m.: The Blue Jackets have agreed to an extension with head coach Rick Bowness that will be announced later today, Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports.
The news comes less than 48 hours following the end of Columbus’ season, which ended on the low side of a complete roller coaster. On Tuesday, following a 2-1 home loss to the Capitals in Game 82 – their sixth straight home loss to end the season – Bowness had some choice words for his club (via Joe Nugent of NBC4 Columbus):
All you gotta do is look at the stat sheet. Three hits, 23 giveaways. I don’t know if I’m back, but if I’m back, I’m changing this culture. These guys, they don’t care – losing is not important enough to them. It doesn’t bother them. Like, how can you go out and play like that?
The Jackets’ season ended as disappointing as it began. On Jan. 12, they had a 19-19-7 record through 45 games and were last in the Eastern Conference. That prompted them to make a change behind the bench, bringing in Bowness out of retirement while firing Dean Evason, who was midway through his second season with the club after pulling them just short of a playoff berth last season. By March 23, their record under Bowness was 19-3-4, and they had pulled ahead of the Penguins for second place in the Metropolitan Division. Even just going .500 from there likely would have shored up the franchise’s first playoff trip since 2020.
It just wasn’t in the cards. The Blue Jackets won just two of their final 11 games and had eight regulation losses, bringing them down to 40-30-12. They ultimately finished a full six points back of the surging Flyers for the Metropolitan Division playoff cutoff and seven points back of the Senators for the second wild-card spot.
Now, Bowness will get the chance he wanted to change that culture. On the whole, his 21-11-5 record in 37 games was strong. The veteran of 840 games as a head coach and countless more as an assistant had stepped away from the game in 2024 following a two-year run with the Jets, leading that franchise back to the postseason after a 2021-22 campaign that fell far short of expectations.
Bowness, 71, has now been a head coach in parts of 15 NHL seasons. He has a Western Conference championship under his belt with the Stars in 2021 and has amassed a lifetime record of 331-419-90 (.448 points percentage), although that’s dragged down significantly by his time spent coaching the expansion Senators in the early 1990s.
Columbus’ advanced numbers this season suggest a team that could and should be a playoff competitor next spring. While they do have several notable unrestricted free agents pending, their core still revolves around several 25-or-younger players like Kirill Marchenko, Adam Fantilli, Kent Johnson, Cole Sillinger, Denton Mateychuk, and Jet Greaves. Since Bowness took over on Jan. 12, the Jackets ranked 10th in the league in Corsi share (51.5%), sixth in the league in shot share (53.1%), eighth in the league in expected goals share (53.0%), and sixth in the league in scoring chance share (53.2%) at 5-on-5.
The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline was first to report things were trending toward a Bowness extension.
Blackhawks Sign GM Kyle Davidson To Contract Extension
It hasn’t been a successful last few seasons in the win-loss column for the Blackhawks as the team is set to miss the postseason for the sixth straight year and eighth time in the last nine seasons. However, the general consensus is that the team is on the way up as their rebuild continues.
Someone who feels that way is Team Chairman and CEO Danny Wirtz. He revealed on CHSN during tonight’s pregame show (Twitter link) that the team has signed GM Kyle Davidson to a contract extension. Terms of the deal were not revealed. Minutes after that, the team officially announced the extension, noting it’s a multi-year agreement. Wirtz released the following statement:
Kyle’s exceptional body of work to date has set us down the path of bringing sustainable, championship-caliber hockey back to Chicago. In a short amount of time, he’s rebuilt the team through strong drafting and player development, delivering a league-leading prospect pool and the beginnings of our future core. He alongside Head Coach Jeff Blashill have redefined our locker room’s culture and mentality, and we are seeing improvements in all of the underlying areas that make winning possible. We believe in Kyle’s vision for this team and remain fully committed to his plan to return the Blackhawks to the top of our sport.
Davidson is in his fourth season at the helm in Chicago after taking on the job in the 2022-23 season. Initially promoted as an interim GM, the interim tag was taken off in March 2022. As Wirtz indicated in his announcement, Davidson was tasked with restocking a prospect pool that, at the time, was one of the weaker ones in the NHL.
To accomplish that objective, Davidson embarked on a full-scale rebuild, trading away several key veterans and even some younger core pieces that didn’t fit in the plans. In doing so, the team dropped sharply in the standings, but doing so allowed them to secure several key cogs, including centers Connor Bedard and Anton Frondell and defenseman Artyom Levshunov. Additionally, moving out Kirby Dach allowed them to add the draft pick that secured them Frank Nazar, who has quickly become a core piece as well.
But while Davidson has indeed put together a very strong prospect pool that’s set to graduate some more youngsters in short order, that’s only one part of getting this team back to playoff contention. He has brought in quite a few veterans in recent years to either act as bridge players to the prospects or, more recently, serve as pieces to help the team’s floor. Tyler Bertuzzi and Teuvo Teravainen were signed in free agency while Andre Burakovsky was added via trade to try to help push the team forward while also bringing in a more established head coach in Blashill. Instead, while they’ve added nine points from a year ago in the standings, they’re actually scoring even less than a year ago, despite better than a point-per-game showing from Bedard.
For the Blackhawks to truly take that next step forward, they will need to find a way to add more prominent veterans to help bring the team along while their youngsters continuing to improve will also aid in that objective. Davidson has a little more than $40MM in cap space for next season as things stand, per PuckPedia, so they certainly have the flexibility needed to add more core pieces to their roster. With this vote of confidence, Wirtz is banking on Davidson being able to do just that.