Thee Official 2026-2027 NHL Season Thread: What? Fuck? It Started?

[neuartillery]

Billy Nilly scored before I realized I was watching regular season hockey

[neuartillery]

Chris Kreider looks wrong in a Habs uniform

[neuartillery]

Lalonde is a Habs assistant now?

[neuartillery]

Anyway

Montreal: [deep sigh]
Florida: They'll be beasts in the playoffs but depth will hurt them in the standing.
Tampa: Carlson's a good ad, Kucherov in a contract year, not dead yet
Ottawa: Better goaltending through the year
Buffalo: The forward depth should be enough but the goaltending (without a Hellebuyck trade) is a concern
-----
Boston: Last year they won every close game, I don't see that repeating
Toronto: They changed a lot but did they get substantially better?
Detroit: [deep sigh]


Washington: A ton of depth, great starting goalie
Carolina: They need to resolve the Nikishin situation, not a Cup hangover exactly but they have less of a margin
New Jersey: Goaltending is a concern but they seem to have addressed scoring depth
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Philly: Everything worked out in the end last year, i don't see that repeating
Rangers: They'll be marginally better
PNES: Everything worked out in the end last year, I don't see that repeating
Islanders: Are they better?
Columbus: Werenski requests a trade by midseason, Bowness has an aneurysm


Colorado: Yep
Dallas: They'll miss some depth but are still real good
Utah: They made smart moves and have excellent young guys
Minnesota: Faber injury, Hughes uncertainty, and Larkin pining all hurt them
St. Louis: Hofer getting the majority of the starts puts them in the playoffs
----
Nashville: Still bad
Winnipeg: Mess
Chicago: Still very bad


Edmonton: They win the division or Babcock kills a puppy
Vegas: Like I can stop them
San Jose: They take another step, the veteran D they overpaid help a lot
-----
Anaheim: Their blueline is a mess, the loss of forward depth hurts
Los Angeles: Old
Seattle: Nobody's good enough
Calgary: Marginally better, still bad
Vancouver: Even worse?

[sutterfamily]

Ottawa: Better goaltending through the year

NGL, I am NOT confident about this. The potential is there, sure, but... well, let's see it? Linus was great in the playoffs, at least. Not sure about this "collect all the worst goalies from last season" strategy also (Ullmark, Ersson, Johansson...)

I'm also (still) not sure who's going to score goals. They play a great system and get tons of good chances but the finishing... lord.

But yeah, playing to their potential they should be in the playoffs right around where you have them.

[neuartillery]

The Atlantic is tough because on one hand, I think seven of the eight teams could make the playoffs. (There’s a world in which the Wings sign Edvinsson soon and go on a fuck-you tear, with Larkin not getting traded but being productive. We do not live in that world.)

Montreal’s got the most depth. Even if guys like Caufield regress a bit, it shouldn’t matter. Tampa could regress—not like they’ve been good in the playoffs—but I can’t see them falling that far. Florida doesn’t have any depth, probably won’t matter, but one major injury could do them in. Is Markstrom going to miraculously improve there?

Past them, lots of questions. Buffalo is worse—down Tuch and Byram, I don’t know if Zellweger and internal growth will keep them at the same spot they were after November last season. Currently both UPL and Lyon are hurt, which underlines my existing concerns that those guys can’t be relied upon. Boston might be better with Jud Jud Peterka and Hagens, but their margins were so small. I don’t think Ottawa improved their roster on the whole, but their goaltending was historically bad for most of last season, and even if I don’t think Ullmark and their shitty backups can win the Vezina, they can be league average.

Toronto’s tricky. In theory they added a top six forward in McKenna and a top pair D in Raddysh, but those guys aren’t guaranteed successes there. Bob was bad last year. They overhauled the bottom six but that doesn’t mean it’s good.

[practice]

obviously they would be better with Leo but you can easily imagine the Flyers picking top 5 this year. I wish they didn't have the Leafs pick and instead the Leafs had their pick, as compensation for taking Scott Laughton

[neuartillery]

Today I learned that the KHL doesn’t include secondary assists in stat lines

[neuartillery]

Tristan Luneau got 7.2 x 6 with 14 NHL games under his belt

[practice]

surely the first time a player I've never heard of has signed for 40+m

[neuartillery]

Does refreshing The Athletic increase the chances that the Wings pulled their head out of their asses and signed Edvinsson to a seven year deal

[linseman]

bettman absolutely SHOCKED that no-trade clauses are being used in a manner that benefits players instead of owners

[neuartillery]

Barkov's on LTIR with no timetable

[hotnickelsyo]

I've yet to find out who exactly I need to scream at, but it's still completely absurd that whichever games get picked up and mirrored on NHL Network are blacked out nationally on all other platforms.

Tomorrow's Wings game being one.

[practice]

Two Leafs games have been blacked out on DAZN NHL TV (UK) already

[neuartillery]

I can’t remember if my cable package gets the NHL Network or not but that was a huge pain in my ass for years. Then the ESPN+ exclusives until DirecTV gave me that for free.

[practice]

Leafs looking p good

[practice]

Raddysh is interesting, kind of like a half court offensive dman. It doesn't seem like he can create much from a breakout or transition but he's kind of a 5-on-5 QB in possession

[practice]

And he gets a nice PP assist on a cool read. He is more than just a booming shoot , our new guy

[practice]

Then he gallops up the ice to take an old school clapper in stride and no one covers for him in the other direction, tie game