No time to waste. Round 1 may not be done, with a pair of Game 7s still on tap, but the NHL is wasting no time launching Round 2, kicking off the New York Rangers and Carolina Hurricanes series before the Dallas Stars host the Vegas Golden Knights a few hours later on Sunday for the final game of Round 1. With some but not all of the second-round matchups determined, we’re rolling out some of our comprehensive preview coverage on Daily Faceoff. You can find links to all our stories here. We’ll continue updating this page once all the Round 2 series are set. Full Round 2 schedule – By...…No time to waste. Round 1 may not be done, with a pair of Game 7s still on tap, but the NHL is wasting no time launching Round 2, kicking off the New York Rangers and Carolina Hurricanes series before the Dallas Stars host the Vegas Golden Knights a few hours later on Sunday for the final game of Round 1. With some but not all of the second-round matchups determined, we’re rolling out some of our comprehensive preview coverage on Daily Faceoff. You can find links to all our stories here. We’ll continue updating this page once all the Round 2 series are set. Full Round 2 schedule – By...WW…

To be clear, the pressure falls on every member of the Toronto Maple Leafs as they navigate the emotions of their seventh opening-round postseason defeat in their past eight seasons. But the temperature will always spike when it comes to the Core Four forward group of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares and William Nylander. And if there’s one player on the team who is the ant under the magnifying glass, scorched by media and fans alike for his performance, it’s undoubtedly Marner right now. He’s unquestionably an elite regular-season player, sixth in league scoring across the past...…To be clear, the pressure falls on every member of the Toronto Maple Leafs as they navigate the emotions of their seventh opening-round postseason defeat in their past eight seasons. But the temperature will always spike when it comes to the Core Four forward group of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares and William Nylander. And if there’s one player on the team who is the ant under the magnifying glass, scorched by media and fans alike for his performance, it’s undoubtedly Marner right now. He’s unquestionably an elite regular-season player, sixth in league scoring across the past...WW…

September 13, 2022It’s rare for a highly touted prospect to meet his draft-day hype, especially if that player is chosen outside the top five picks or so, and especially if that player stops pucks for a living. Scouts are practically guessing when it comes to goalies.Factoring out the past five years, since netminders take longer than skaters to develop, here are the last 25 goaltenders chosen in the first round, through the 2015 draft:Pascal Leclaire, 2001Dan Blackburn, 2001Jason Bacashihua, 2001Adam Munro, 2001Kari Lehtonen, 2002Cam Ward, 2002Hannu Toivonen, 2002Marc-Andre Fleury, 2003Al...…September 13, 2022It’s rare for a highly touted prospect to meet his draft-day hype, especially if that player is chosen outside the top five picks or so, and especially if that player stops pucks for a living. Scouts are practically guessing when it comes to goalies.Factoring out the past five years, since netminders take longer than skaters to develop, here are the last 25 goaltenders chosen in the first round, through the 2015 draft:Pascal Leclaire, 2001Dan Blackburn, 2001Jason Bacashihua, 2001Adam Munro, 2001Kari Lehtonen, 2002Cam Ward, 2002Hannu Toivonen, 2002Marc-Andre Fleury, 2003Al...WW…

September 13, 2022“Listen, I’m fed up with losing, and I’m frustrated. It’s definitely not an easy pill to swallow right now. It’s been a tough couple of months. It’s been a tough five years with how things have went.”So that was Buffalo Sabres captain Jack Eichel on a Zoom call last May, in the weeks before the team’s ownership began bending over backward in hopes of finally building a competitive team and getting their young superstar to the playoffs in his sixth season. That was Eichel, clearly disgruntled, before the Sabres fired GM Jason Botterill and signed Taylor Hall and traded for...…September 13, 2022“Listen, I’m fed up with losing, and I’m frustrated. It’s definitely not an easy pill to swallow right now. It’s been a tough couple of months. It’s been a tough five years with how things have went.”So that was Buffalo Sabres captain Jack Eichel on a Zoom call last May, in the weeks before the team’s ownership began bending over backward in hopes of finally building a competitive team and getting their young superstar to the playoffs in his sixth season. That was Eichel, clearly disgruntled, before the Sabres fired GM Jason Botterill and signed Taylor Hall and traded for...WW…

September 13, 2022The walls are closing in, and the NHL knows it. The COVID-19 pandemic seems to ensnare a new team or player every day. The New Jersey Devils, Buffalo Sabres, Colorado Avalanche, Philadelphia Flyers, and Minnesota Wild are locked down at the moment. The Devils have played just nine games this season, while some teams in the North Division have played as many as 16 or 17. The pandemic panic reached a new level earlier this week when, in the middle of a game, the Vegas Golden Knights learned that left winger Tomas Nosek had received a positive test result. They pulled him...…September 13, 2022The walls are closing in, and the NHL knows it. The COVID-19 pandemic seems to ensnare a new team or player every day. The New Jersey Devils, Buffalo Sabres, Colorado Avalanche, Philadelphia Flyers, and Minnesota Wild are locked down at the moment. The Devils have played just nine games this season, while some teams in the North Division have played as many as 16 or 17. The pandemic panic reached a new level earlier this week when, in the middle of a game, the Vegas Golden Knights learned that left winger Tomas Nosek had received a positive test result. They pulled him...WW…

September 13, 2022July 26 UPDATE: Time to spruce up the list of remaining UFAs one more time. It’s strange to use the term “remaining” when free agency hasn’t even opened yet, but numerous names have flown off the list thanks to a whirlwind week that included (a) the expansion draft, in which the Seattle Kraken inked UFAs Adam Larsson, Jamie Oleskiak and Chris Driedger; (b) a monstrous sign-and-trade contract from the New York Rangers for Barclay Goodrow; (c) a handful of re-signings, such as Taylor Hall’s with the Boston Bruins; and (d) some all-but-confirmed signings announced in the days...…September 13, 2022July 26 UPDATE: Time to spruce up the list of remaining UFAs one more time. It’s strange to use the term “remaining” when free agency hasn’t even opened yet, but numerous names have flown off the list thanks to a whirlwind week that included (a) the expansion draft, in which the Seattle Kraken inked UFAs Adam Larsson, Jamie Oleskiak and Chris Driedger; (b) a monstrous sign-and-trade contract from the New York Rangers for Barclay Goodrow; (c) a handful of re-signings, such as Taylor Hall’s with the Boston Bruins; and (d) some all-but-confirmed signings announced in the days...WW…

September 13, 2022Wayne Gretzky just turned 60 years old. Sweet: an excuse to talk about his dominance again.Full disclosure: I’m about the biggest Wayne Gretzky apologist you’ll find, a fan of video-game dominance, a fierce defender of his status as the greatest hockey player of all-time. What stands out to me most about Wayne is how much he lapped his competition. Forget the “Connor McDavid could beat Wayne Gretzky 1-on-1” or “Goalies were so inferior back then” arguments. If scoring was that easy in the 1980s, why did no one else approach what Wayne did? He won his 10 scoring titles by...…September 13, 2022Wayne Gretzky just turned 60 years old. Sweet: an excuse to talk about his dominance again.Full disclosure: I’m about the biggest Wayne Gretzky apologist you’ll find, a fan of video-game dominance, a fierce defender of his status as the greatest hockey player of all-time. What stands out to me most about Wayne is how much he lapped his competition. Forget the “Connor McDavid could beat Wayne Gretzky 1-on-1” or “Goalies were so inferior back then” arguments. If scoring was that easy in the 1980s, why did no one else approach what Wayne did? He won his 10 scoring titles by...WW…

September 13, 2022Part 1 of this 2021 mock expansion draft looked at the Vegas Golden Knights’ 2017 selections as a possible template for the Seattle Kraken to follow in 2021. To summarize: if GM Ron Francis wants to borrow from what George McPhee did for the Golden Knights in 2017, Francis will (a) target plenty of 2022 UFAs who can be flipped as rentals; (b) avoid signing many if any 2021 UFAs, and (c) seek trades for bad contracts in exchange for draft and/or prospect capital.Armed with those ideas, I present to you my first crack at a 2021 Seattle Kraken expansion mock draft. First off,...…September 13, 2022Part 1 of this 2021 mock expansion draft looked at the Vegas Golden Knights’ 2017 selections as a possible template for the Seattle Kraken to follow in 2021. To summarize: if GM Ron Francis wants to borrow from what George McPhee did for the Golden Knights in 2017, Francis will (a) target plenty of 2022 UFAs who can be flipped as rentals; (b) avoid signing many if any 2021 UFAs, and (c) seek trades for bad contracts in exchange for draft and/or prospect capital.Armed with those ideas, I present to you my first crack at a 2021 Seattle Kraken expansion mock draft. First off,...WW…

September 13, 2022Welcome to my annual panic/don’t panic column. It’s typically reserved for mid-July, but mid-October is now the equivalent. It’s the early-off-season juncture in which we peek at a handful of relatively inactive teams and assess whether their fan bases should worry about the lack of major roster turnover.It’s worth noting that, unlike in most off-seasons, there’s still a decent amount of hope for teams to make improvements as we reach the 10-day mark of free agency. With the early UFA negotiation window removed and , the market has slowed down, and a few big names remain...…September 13, 2022Welcome to my annual panic/don’t panic column. It’s typically reserved for mid-July, but mid-October is now the equivalent. It’s the early-off-season juncture in which we peek at a handful of relatively inactive teams and assess whether their fan bases should worry about the lack of major roster turnover.It’s worth noting that, unlike in most off-seasons, there’s still a decent amount of hope for teams to make improvements as we reach the 10-day mark of free agency. With the early UFA negotiation window removed and , the market has slowed down, and a few big names remain...WW…

September 13, 2022On the latest episode of The Hockey News One-on-One, senior writer Matt Larkin sits down with Brock McGillis to discuss a bunch of topics, including:- Flashing back four years ago to when he came out publicly as gay. How much has his life changed?- What he's learned most from the experience of coming out- Describing a typical day in his jam-packed life- What it's like being a role model for gay athletes- His work teaching hockey players that being different is OK - His major upcoming projectAnd more!Plus: A fantasy draft of RuPaul's Drag Race cast membersThe Colorado...…September 13, 2022On the latest episode of The Hockey News One-on-One, senior writer Matt Larkin sits down with Brock McGillis to discuss a bunch of topics, including:- Flashing back four years ago to when he came out publicly as gay. How much has his life changed?- What he's learned most from the experience of coming out- Describing a typical day in his jam-packed life- What it's like being a role model for gay athletes- His work teaching hockey players that being different is OK - His major upcoming projectAnd more!Plus: A fantasy draft of RuPaul's Drag Race cast membersThe Colorado...WW…