NHL Season 2025-26

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by suburbanite

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.

Apparently $2 Billion+, USD. I don't see how that makes sense for a Canadian city anymore.

[craner]

Originally Posted by 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"

I don’t mind this trade for the Flames, I just wonder why Jersey is giving up on Nemec after only 2 seasons in the NHL.

[Razor]

I guess the Sens weren't done..They flipped that #9 pick that they got from Florida, and traded it to San Jose for Eklund.Time will tell!
https://www.nhl.com/news/topic/trade-cov...ed-to-ottawa-senators-by-san-jose-sharks

As far as a Texas expansion, I personally like the idea of a natural rival for the Dallas stars. Houston is a large market! As much as I would love to see QC come back into the fold, the sad reality is the league has simply gotten too big for most small markets. The expansion fees, corporate support, etc.

[jamincan]

Yesterday was crazy for the off-season. Let's see if I remember it all:
- Eklund trade
- Nemec trade
- Byrum trade
- Kyrou trade
- Brady Tkachuk news conference and McAfee show visit
- Oilers officially hire Babcock, DJ Smith, and news conference
- NHL expansion plans to Texas

And apparently the kettle is still boiling and there's more to come.

Rumours around Ottawa I'm hearing are Ingram (seem pretty credible) and Lafreniere keeps popping up too. Depending on the cost, if we get both of them, I think we come out of this off-season pretty good.

[J.OT13]

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…

Way too many teams. Cheapens the product. Makes it harder to win a Stanley Cup, and therefore far more frustrating for fans. 30 teams was good, 32 was ok, but anymore than that starts being kind of ridiculous.

[Coldrsx]

^wait until we expand to Europe.

[Wpg_Guy]

Jim Ludlow, President of True North Real Estate Development recently sat down for an interview and explained how in 2011 they acquired an NHL franchise. True North, the organization that owns the Jets had a "plug-and-play" operation ready, supported by their experience with the Manitoba Moose and a modern venue (MTS Centre) designed specifically to be large enough to potentially accommodate an NHL team. There were specific challenges within existing NHL markets (like Atlanta) that created a rare, small window for a team relocation, Jim emphasizes that "windows open and when they do, you got to go through them" because they inevitably close.

Jim notes that trying to replicate this in 2026 would be an impossibility. He points out that the cost of developing a modern sports and entertainment venue in a Canadian market in today's dollars, combined with the current, significantly higher price of acquiring an NHL franchise, makes a similar entry into the league currently unattainable.

Winnipeg was lucky it had a patient ownership group and a rare opportunity to entre the league when it did.

• Video Link

[Calgarian]

Originally Posted by craner

I don’t mind this trade for the Flames, I just wonder why Jersey is giving up on Nemec after only 2 seasons in the NHL.

NJ has a pretty deep Defense Core and Nemec just never found a role with them. Bit of a risky move for the Flames, but Nemec should slot right into the top 4, possibly with Bahl who played with him in Jersey. Losing 2 firsts and a second is a tough pill to swallow though.

[Nicko999]

Originally Posted by TownGuy

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.

Wrong, I did not have the Habs winning the series. I did say Carolina was not scary but I questioned if we would have enough juice to compete with them. So I wasn't that far off.

Gavin Mckenna is definitely a great piece to build around but he is a winger on the small side. Extremely talented for sure but if you don't surround him, you will not have success. Look at Bedard in Chicago.

The Colorado 1st is very likely a late one. I agree they need to take a shot because they don't own thier next 2 1st round picks but that puts them in no man's land. Marner is gone and the defense is slow and aging.
Jim Hiller is a bad, bad coach. I give him 12 months before he is fired.



Also, how the hell did Chicago trade away their 4th overall pick for Bowen Byram??? Might actually be the worse trade I have seen in a long, long time.

[jamincan]

Originally Posted by Nicko999

Also, how the hell did Chicago trade away their 4th overall pick for Bowen Byram??? Might actually be the worse trade I have seen in a long, long time.

For a team with a deep prospect pool like Chicago (deep enough that they're losing prospects due to lack of development opportunities), the immediate return of a roster player of Byram's calibre is higher than the potential return of a 4OA prospect in a weak draft class. Keep in mind as well that it is a sellers market right now and prices are high.

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Way too many teams. Cheapens the product. Makes it harder to win a Stanley Cup, and therefore far more frustrating for fans. 30 teams was good, 32 was ok, but anymore than that starts being kind of ridiculous.

I suspect that opinion would be different if it was 1 or 2 teams in Canada being added lol.

[Coldrsx]

Gavin a Leaf; all the best to him as he embarks on his career.

The way the did the draft with Bieber was beyond stupid and insulting to the brand and history of this league.

SJ wins the draft and should be even more fun to watch over the next 3-5.

[jamincan]

I thought the Bieber part was fine. A bunch of teams had celebrities announcing their picks. I liked Laila Edwards for San Jose more, but nothing wrong with Bieber doing it for Toronto.

I was blown away at how much of a natural Scheifer is in front of a mic. That guy has a future in broadcasting.

[Djeffery]

I thought the couch thing was funny. The 32nd pick has the front row centre section meanwhile other guys are walking down from the 20th row. Wonder how they decided who sits where?

I didn't have a problem with Biebs either. The NHL is a production now and they should make a bigger deal out of the first pick, especially in one of the top markets. What bigger celebrity who is known as a Leafs fan are they going to get than him?

I also think this format is growing on me. I wasn't sure I would like that the teams aren't there, it was an adjustment last year and the zoom thing they were doing was kind of awkward. Last night seemed to run a little better, other than the Guerrin thing. When you had the teams there it was an endless parade of people up on stage and then the GM with his "Hello to our fans at the watch party, thank you to the host city for your hospitality, congrats to the Stanley Cup champs, and now with our first pick I'd like to invite our director of amateur scouting to come up and announce which retiring staff member is going to announce the pick".

I also liked that they showed the guy in the back putting the names on the sweaters. It was cool for the lower picks to still be able to get their name rather than just a blank jersey with their draft year as the number. It seemed like previously, each team had to bring in a box of premade jerseys in case their projected draft order got out of whack.

[MonctonRad]

Moncton Wildcat Tommy Bleyl a late first rounder - going to Nashville.

We've had first rounders two out of the last three years (Caleb Desnoyers the other one, third overall picked by Utah). Not too bad.......

[craner]

SJ definitely won the draft - they seem to be set-up well for the future - stacked !

[Berklon]

Originally Posted by jamincan

I thought the Bieber part was fine. A bunch of teams had celebrities announcing their picks. I liked Laila Edwards for San Jose more, but nothing wrong with Bieber doing it for Toronto.

Don't care if they have celebs doing it or not, I just thought that it was dumb that they didn't give him a tiny script to announce the pick (or they did, and he didn't read it) - and he just said something like "Gavin, get up here - Toronto drafted you" or something like that. Such a simple thing to do.

In any case, these draft shows are so overblown anyways.

I was blown away at how much of a natural Scheifer is in front of a mic. That guy has a future in broadcasting.

The problem with Scheifer is that when he gets talking, he tends to ramble on and repeats himself because he has hard time finding the extra ramp.
The good thing about him is that he's a Hamiltonian. That automatically overrules anything bad about him.

[Calgarian]

Florida just traded for the rights to Gudas, after acquiring Garnet Hathaway and Brady Tkachuk. With this roster, they must be looking to break the all time record for penalty minutes or something.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by Djeffery

Apparently $2 Billion+, USD. I don't see how that makes sense for a Canadian city anymore.

Hasn't made sense for more than two decades (sorry Winnipeg ... I just never understood that move and I think they'll relocate again, given the Bettman/NHL-ownership "financial" perspective). Hasn't made sense for more than three decades if you're from Hamilton and still stupidly hoping for a team.

[jamincan]

Originally Posted by Calgarian

Florida just traded for the rights to Gudas, after acquiring Garnet Hathaway and Brady Tkachuk. With this roster, they must be looking to break the all time record for penalty minutes or something.

If the opposing team doesn't show up for the game because they're all in the hospital, they can't win the series.