NHL Season 2025-26

[TownGuy]

Originally Posted by Nicko999

Leafs hiring Jim Hiller is hilarious. To date the only coach i have seen DIRECTLY costing his team the series.

They are entering a dark period the league has rarely seen.

Chayka is a clown, Hiller is absolutely awful, Matthews best days seem to be behind him, Nylander is 30 already so by the time they are competitive again, he would be retired and they have no 1st round picks in 2027 AND 2028.

Just too bad they didn't trade those picks out West. Instead, Philadelphia and Boston would have them.

The last time I read one of your predictions you had the Habs winning a series over the Hurricanes, a team you weren't worried about.

You've missed the most important piece of their future... drafting 1st overall here shortly. Gavin McKenna is by all accounts a slam dunk 1st overall pick. To not mention that is plain hilarious. About to enter a dark period the league has rarely seen while being on the cusp of drafting a potential superstar. That's a hell of a prognostication.

Also, while they don't have their 1st round pick next year, they own Colorado's 1st and also have 2 2nds. If they are terrible it is presumed they will trade assets and pick up more, as every team does.

Brings me to my next point. They have signed Raddysh and they weren't a true lottery team this year and they wont be next year either. They made the playoffs 10 straight years, vastly underperformed this year, weren't even really bad enough to have great odds of winning the lottery, and did anyway. Seeing as how they don't have their own 1st round picks they might as well take a shot at it and see what happens the next 2 seasons, which is what they're doing. If that fails you trade Matthews, Nylander and build around McKenna.

[jamincan]

People have been down on Chayka, but I think every move he's made so far has been a solid decision and people should give him more of a chance. It definitely seems like a shift has happened in the organization and I can't see Matthews wanting to move given the current situation (new coach, Raddysh strengthening blueline, promising goaltender situation, McKenna coming in and Cowan coming off Calder Cup win, GM who is clearly active and engaged and able to do stuff). For their sake, I hope Toronto starts the season off with greater spirits given these changes plus whatever other moves Chayka makes in the coming months.

The situation in the Atlantic division looks like it is poised to be a bloodbath with Toronto and Florida likely returning to regular form. It will be interesting to see how things play out.

[J.OT13]

Ottawa Senators traded Bray Tkachuk for three first round and one second round draft pick.

https://ottawasun.com/ottawa-senators/he...aptain-brady-tkachuks-departure?tbref=hp

[Biff]

Really tough on GM's now that players basically only want to go to Florida, Vegas, Dallas, and now Minnesota. 3 of the 4 have no personal income tax.

They have to find a way to abolish the no trade clauses. I know...chances of that happening - zero.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by Biff

Really tough on GM's now that players basically only want to go to Florida, Vegas, Dallas, and now Minnesota. 3 of the 4 have no personal income tax.

They have to find a way to abolish the no trade clauses. I know...chances of that happening - zero.

Agreed. Players have a bit too much power now. If a no trade clause exists, it should be limited to a very small list of teams and should come with some sort of penalty.

[jamincan]

Honestly, I'm okay with the trade. Brady basically disappeared for us after the Olympics anyway, so good riddance to a bad apple.

[Calgarian]

Florida is going to get a lot of penalties now, going to need a really solid PK.

[harls]

Originally Posted by Biff

Really tough on GM's now that players basically only want to go to Florida, Vegas, Dallas, and now Minnesota. 3 of the 4 have no personal income tax.

They have to find a way to abolish the no trade clauses. I know...chances of that happening - zero.

But can you blame them in this economy, Biff? Extra golden toilet in the guest house.

[Jammon]

Originally Posted by Calgarian

Florida is going to get a lot of penalties now, going to need a really solid PK.

I really hope they struggle as much as they did this season. I would like nothing better than to see Florida in the tank with both Tkachuk brothers playing together.

[Calgarian]

It's official, Babcock is the Oilers head coach. Don't think this is a good hiring, but we shall see...

[suburbanite]

Even looking past the character issues, I just don't get what Oiler's management (and by the sounds of it, the top players who apparently approved it) hope to get out of this. I don't even buy the idea that he's a good X's and O's coach who just also happens to be a psychopath. His system in Toronto when he had a ton of young talent was so mind-numbingly predictable that once the playoffs came around it was clear that the opposing team knew exactly what they were going to do.

Babcock's previous reputation was built on the back of coaching one of the greatest NHL teams assembled in this century, one in which he won a single cup with and had Nik Lidstrom playing 30 minutes a night to cover up a lot of issues. I don't know what he's been doing the last 5 years to convince Oiler's management that he has completely moved out of an early 2000's mindset.

[Calgarian]

I think it's the hard nose style that they want, though I don't think Babcock would have been the guy. Ironically Sutter would have been a much better coach, a defense first style of play would help with a lot of the Oilers issues. If Edmonton can get a good goalie and defenseman, they should be a pretty dangerous team again. Last year they were just too bad in their own end, 8th worst goals against with the 6th best goals for.

Excited for the draft this weekend, Flames have 6 picks in the first 2 rounds with the 6th and 30th in the first round. Hope they take a center with the 6th. Ottawa is suddenly a very interesting team to watch in the draft with 3 1st round picks!

[Coldrsx]

DJ Smith announced as the Oilers Assistant Coach.

[Calgarian]

Apparently the Flames just made a trade. Not too familiar with Nemec other than he was a #2 draft pick 4 years ago...

Via Elliott Freeman: "Nemec & Tsyplakov for 2nd (NYR) this year, Vegas 1st 2027, COL 1st 2028 (both top 10 protected) & Etienne Morin"

[harls]

Sure would be cool to watch hockey for free. Then I could give a shit about what millionaire goes where.

[ericmacm]

Gary Bettman has advised the Board of Governors at their meeting today that an expansion process will be opened up for a new team in Texas. Dan Friedkin is the prospective bidder, he is a long-time pursuant of ownership in a North American sports franchise and was not chosen in the bidding process for the San Diego Padres earlier this year. It is reported that he has agreed to all of the terms and will be investing $3.5B USD ($2B expansion fee + $1.5B for an arena, as part of the new stipulations set out by Bettman later last year), and that the new team will either be based in Houston or Austin. It is worth noting that Dan Friedkin emerged as the new frontrunner last year, after Houston Rockets and Toyota Center owner Tilman Fertitta, the former frontrunner for Houston, expressed that he did not want to pay over $1B for an expansion team.

There will apparently be a 6-month study period, after which they will determine if this goes ahead or not. Austin is much smaller than Houston as a market, but it seems to present a very similar opportunity to Las Vegas back in 2016, as no Big 4 franchise currently exists in Austin.

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Originally Posted by ericmacm

Gary Bettman has advised the Board of Governors at their meeting today that an expansion process will be opened up for a new team in Texas. Dan Friedkin is the prospective bidder, he is a long-time pursuant of ownership in a North American sports franchise and was not chosen in the bidding process for the San Diego Padres earlier this year. It is reported that he has agreed to all of the terms and will be investing $3.5B USD ($2B expansion fee + $1.5B for an arena, as part of the new stipulations set out by Bettman later last year), and that the new team will either be based in Houston or Austin. It is worth noting that Dan Friedkin emerged as the new frontrunner last year, after Houston Rockets and Toyota Center owner Tilman Fertitta, the former frontrunner for Houston, expressed that he did not want to pay over $1B for an expansion team.

There will apparently be a 6-month study period, after which they will determine if this goes ahead or not. Austin is much smaller than Houston as a market, but it seems to present a very similar opportunity to Las Vegas back in 2016, as no Big 4 franchise currently exists in Austin.

Just saw this, and glad I didn’t have to go further than this thread to read the details. Do these type of announcements not trigger the people in Quebec City anymore, or are they just used to Bettman acting like their city and NHL ready arena don’t exist? Houston clearly makes sense, but possibly two expansion teams in Texas seems a bit crazy before some other more hockey focussed cities and regions (in both Canada and the US).

If the league has expansion plans for a 34-36 team league, how the hell can a team in Quebec City, and a second team in Southern Ontario not be part of their plans…

[Calgarian]

With Winnipeg recently struggling to fill the smallest arena in the league, I doubt the league is interested in another small Canadian market. And I'm pretty sure it's the Maple Leafs that are blocking a team in Southern Ontario. There should be 3 teams in the GTA by now.

[ericmacm]

Originally Posted by EnvisionSaintJohn

Just saw this, and glad I didn’t have to go further than this thread to read the details. Do these type of announcements not trigger the people in Quebec City anymore, or are they just used to Bettman acting like their city and NHL ready arena don’t exist? Houston clearly makes sense, but possibly two expansion teams in Texas seems a bit crazy before some other more hockey focussed cities and regions (in both Canada and the US).

If the league has expansion plans for a 34-36 team league, how the hell can a team in Quebec City, and a second team in Southern Ontario not be part of their plans…

The issue that we have here in Canada is that while nobody is explicitly against the idea of smaller markets like Quebec City or Hamilton or Halifax having a team, there are simply too many big and wealthy markets in the US that don’t have teams who could theoretically generate large revenues. Take Winnipeg for example. They are an extremely efficient market at generating revenue compared to the size of the market (in 2025, $182M revenue and $17M profit for a market of less than 1M), but that profit at the end of the day is still the 4th lowest in the league and profit is at 6th lowest. If you are going to be adding teams and growing the pie for revenue, you want to be adding big revenue generators, not other teams like Winnipeg.

In Bettman’s formal announcement, he mentioned that there have been discussions around Houston, Atlanta, and Phoenix - these are the 3 largest media markets in the US without teams. They are significantly larger and wealthier than Quebec City or Hamilton, and therefore have the capability to generate good revenue for the league if everything goes right.

[suburbanite]

Originally Posted by EnvisionSaintJohn

Just saw this, and glad I didn’t have to go further than this thread to read the details. Do these type of announcements not trigger the people in Quebec City anymore, or are they just used to Bettman acting like their city and NHL ready arena don’t exist? Houston clearly makes sense, but possibly two expansion teams in Texas seems a bit crazy before some other more hockey focussed cities and regions (in both Canada and the US).

If the league has expansion plans for a 34-36 team league, how the hell can a team in Quebec City, and a second team in Southern Ontario not be part of their plans…

From the league's point of view, expansion fees can only go in one direction. There likely isn't another Canadian market where a $1 billion+ franchise fee is feasible, and we don't have the plethora of billionaires that are willing to make vanity purchases.