According to The Athletic's Aaron Portzline, former New Jersey Devils forward Stefan Matteau is being hired as an assistant coach for the Columbus Blue Jackets' AHL affiliate, the Cleveland Monsters.
Matteau announced his retirement from hockey back in May after spending each of the last two seasons with the Monsters. Now, based on Portzline's report, Matteau will be an assistant coach for the AHL squad.
Sounds like Stefan Matteau, 31, is making an immediate leap from player to coach with AHL Cleveland, replacing Mark Letestu behind the bench.
— Aaron Portzline (@Aportzline) July 31, 2025
Matteau had a 13-year pro career w New Jersey, Montreal, Vegas, Columbus and Colorado. He's on Trent Vogelhuber's staff. @monstershockey
Matteau was selected by the Devils with the 29th overall pick of the 2012 NHL Entry Draft. In 44 games over three seasons as a Devil, he recorded three goals, two assists, five points, and 83 hits. His time with the Devils ended during the 2015-16 season when he was traded to the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for forward Devante Smith-Pelly.
In 92 NHL games over seven seasons split between the Devils, Canadiens, Vegas Golden Knights, and Blue Jackets from 2012-13 to 2021-22, Matteau recorded six goals, five assists, 11 points, and 181 hits.
Devils Have Intriguing Free-Agent Target To ConsiderThe New Jersey Devils have made some new additions to their roster this off-season, but it would be understandable if they tried to make more before the 2025-26 campaign is here. When looking at their roster, it is fair to argue that they could use a bit more forward depth, especially.
Photo Credit: © Andy Marlin-Imagn Images
The Ottawa Senators' Ring of Honour was established to recognize players and team personnel who served the organization with distinction but don’t quite fit into the categories of team jersey retirement or the Hockey Hall of Fame.
There are six men in the Hockey Hall of Fame who once wore the centurion crest: Daniel Alfredsson, Tom Barrasso, Zdeno Chara, Dominik Hasek, Marian Hossa, and former coach Roger Neilson.
The Senators' retired numbers are Chris Phillips, Daniel Alfredsson, and Chris Neil. When the modern-day expansion Senators returned to the ice, they tipped their cap to the original Senators by retiring the number 8 of Frank Finnigan, a star player in the 1920s and ’30s who helped owner Bruce Firestone and his crew with the Bring Back the Senators campaign in the early '90s.
As an aside, I'm not sure why having your jersey retired should remove you from Ring of Honour contention. To me, that's like making a defenseman ineligible for the Norris Trophy because he won the Hart.
Who Are The Top Five Fighters In Ottawa Senators History?My old pal, Liam Maguire, the greatest hockey trivia mind in the world, was making the rounds in Renfrew last Friday, roughly an hour west of Ottawa. Along with Liam's passion for NHL trivia, I've never met a man who likes seeing a good hockey fight more than he does.
Ironically, the Ring of Honour is the easiest of the three accolades to achieve, and yet it has the fewest members. Currently, it includes just three: former head coach and general manager Bryan Murray, longtime defenseman Wade Redden, and team doctor Donald Chow.
With new ownership and management focused on being "Best in Class," it might be time to throw a few more hats in the Ring. We can't put Brady Tkachuk or Erik Karlsson up there right now. But here are five retired players who wouldn’t look out of place right now on the Sens' R.O.H.
1. Craig Anderson
This one feels like a no-brainer. Anderson is the franchise leader in almost every goaltending stat and metric. He backstopped the team to the Eastern Conference Final in 2017, coming within a single goal of the Stanley Cup Final. Unfortunately, the image of him vainly trying to see through J.G. Pageau as a flutter puck from Chris Kunitz found its way past him will be burned into our memories forever. But the good times were many. The undisputed greatest goalie in team history deserves a spot in the Ring of Honour.
2. Marian Hossa
Some argue Hossa wasn't in Ottawa long enough to be considered Ring-worthy, but he played 467 games here and was emerging as one of the NHL’s truly elite players. He scored 390 points as a Senator and ranks 14th all-time in games played for the club. He didn’t ask out. He signed a contract in good faith, only to be immediately traded by GM John Muckler in a package deal for Dany Heatley. Doesn't that make you want to extend an olive branch to one of the most skilled players to ever wear a Sens jersey?
3. Alexei Yashin
Don't start throwing tomatoes at me. Yashin is the only Senator ever considered for the Hart Trophy as NHL MVP. He sits 13th in games played with 504 and racked up 491 points. Yes, his contract holdouts were fiercely frustrating at the time, but few players have ever been more talented in a Sens uniform. I've always felt like this was just a kid getting some really bad advice from his agent.
4. Jason Spezza
Spezza ranks sixth all-time in games played (686) and scored 251 goals and 687 points, nearly a point per game. Yes, some were disappointed that he was named captain in 2013–14, only to request a trade by the end of the season. But his behind-the-scenes exhaustion during the Eugene Melnyk years surely played a big role in that. If you believe that, then Spezza deserves a little grace. He was an excellent Senator for a long time and absolutely belongs in the Ring of Honour.
5. Dany Heatley
You could definitely make a case against this one because Heatley only played four seasons for the Senators. But the only 50-goal scorer in club history (he did it twice) will never look out of place on the Ring. Heatley was part of the most entertaining line in team history with Daniel Alfredsson and Jason Spezza. The Senators took the first step by publicly reuniting the Pizza Line last year. Why not complete the tribute?
You could also twist my arm on Zdeno Chara or Mike Fisher, by the way.
I get it. Some of these options are borderline for varying reasons. But frankly, I'm willing to be flexible right now. Because for an NHL team that's 33 years old, having a ring of honour with just one player on it isn't a very good look.
It's time to get some star names up there and beef this thing up.
By Steve Warne
The Hockey News Ottawa
Mandatory Credit: Marc DesRosiers-Imagn Images
More Sens Headlines:
Sens Rewind: The Year Jason Spezza Became Ottawa Senators Captain
Formenton's Lawyer: 'The Crown Knowingly Forged Ahead With A Hopeless Prosecution'
Mark Stone Jokes That It Wasn't Always Easy Playing On Brady Tkachuk's Line
2018 World Junior Trial Ends: Former Senator Alex Formenton Found Not Guilty
Two Sens Prospects Set To Shine At World Junior Summer Showcase
Croatia's NHL Trailblazer: Sens Prospect Bruno Idžan Takes NHL Road Less Travelled
The Hockey News has released its archive to all THN subscribers: 76 years of history, stories, and features.
Subscribe now to view the full THN Archives here
Also, go to thn.com/free to subscribe.
(Original author: Sam Stockton)
Fifteen years ago this month, the Detroit Red Wings lifted the Stanley Cup for the eleventh time in franchise history. It was the team’s fourth title in eleven seasons. If you are the kind of person who is stringent in their application of the label “dynasty,” perhaps believing that a minimum of three consecutive championships is an essential criterion, then you might not count the Red Wings from the late nineties through the late aughts, but you couldn’t put any other hockey team in front of them during that span. In the nascent days of the NHL’s salary cap era, the ‘08 Wings provided the league with an aspirational gold standard.
In June of 2008, you would be in rare company if you suspected that the end of a golden age was imminent, but with the benefit of hindsight, maybe it wasn’t so surprising. To be sure, there was one more big run left—the following season’s journey to a Cup Final rematch with the Penguins, a home defeat in Game 7, and symbolic torch-passing to Sidney Crosby, but beyond that, precious little.
In the four seasons spanning the NHL’s 2005 return from another lockout and that 2009 Game 7 loss in Detroit, the Red Wings won nine playoff series. They twice won the Western Conference and took home the big prize in 2008.
From the 2009-10 season to the present, the Wings have won just two playoff series, both of them prior to joining the Eastern Conference before the '13-14 season.
In 2017, Detroit missed the playoffs for the first time since 1990—a streak generally accepted as a core cause for the depth of the ensuing and ongoing rebuild.
In other words, at the rate of a trickle, the band broke up, and, within a decade, the notion of the Detroit Red Wings as a standard for excellence around the league was laughable.
Yet the legacy of the 2008 Red Wings could not be so easily forgotten. With the possible exception of Darryl Sutter’s Cup-winning LA Kings, they remained the supreme example of possession-based hockey in the NHL. Conveniently, the ‘07-08 season is the first for which we have (mostly) reliable shot data and thus a sort of year zero for modern analytics. With those tools at our disposal, we can better express the extent of those Red Wings’ dominance.
At fifteen years' remove, it’s striking that this wasn’t a team of preposterous talent up and down the lineup, layering one scoring line on top of another in the style of the ‘15 Blackhawks or the ‘16 and ‘17 Penguins. To be sure, they weren't bereft of talent, but you wouldn't confuse the lineup for an all-star team.
At the top of the lineup, there was glimmering skill: Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Lidsrom, Rafalski. But from a depth perspective, these Wings were more dependent on brawn than skill. Up front it was Draper, Maltby, and Drake. Along the blue line, Lebda, Lilja, and whatever remained of Chris Chelios.
It was during the 2008 postseason that Johan Franzen, with his eighteen points in sixteen games, emerged as one of the best power forwards in the league.
THN.com's ongoing series on the Buffalo Sabres and their opponents next season continues with this look at the New York Rangers and the considerable changes the Rangers have made thus far this off-season, as well as their record against the Sabres and their schedule head-to-head this coming season.
The Rangers have a new voice guiding them on the ice in former Pittsburgh Penguins and Boston Bruins coach Mike Sullivan. And the Blueshirts were quite active in the trade and free-agency departments, so the Sabres team that mostly stayed the same is going to see a much different Rangers squad. So we're excited to see the way the games between the two teams shakes out this year.
NEW RANGERS PLAYERS: Vladislav Gavrikov, D; Taylor Raddysh, RW; Justin Dowling, LW; Scott Morrow, D
2024-25 SERIES: Sabres 2-1-0, Rangers 1-2-0
2025-26 GAMES AGAINST EACH OTHER: October 9 at Buffalo; January 8 at Rangers; April 8 at Rangers
CAN THE SABRES BEAT THIS TEAM? The Rangers and Sabres squeezed in their regular-season action last year by the third week of February. which is a bit of a shame, as this rivalry is a favorite of ours and needs more games deep down the stretch of the regular season.
Thankfully, the NHL schedule-maker is giving us this year's three games betweeen the Sabres and Rangers at very different points in the season. First, Buffalo takes on the Rangers in their first game of the year. Then, they meet again in the first week of January. And finally, they wrap things up in a game that's the fourth-to-last on the Sabres' schedule.
That latter game has the potentil to be a powderkeg game, with both teams possibly fighting it out for a wild card berth. But by then, each team will have worked far past the trade deadlne, so we could be talking about two very different rosters.
Know Your Enemy, Sabres Metropolitan Edition: Are Retooling Islanders A Better Team Than Buffalo?Welcome back to THN.com's Buffalo Sabres site. In recent days and weeks, we've been focusing on the teams the Sabres will square off against next season. And in today's file, we're turning our attention to a team Buffalo will be taking on in the latest battl(es) of New York (state) -- the New York Islanders.
Regardless, the Sabres will be taking on a Rangers team that said goodbye to longtime cornerstone winger Chris Kreider, as well as veteran defenseman K'Andre Miller. In their place is former L.A. Kings stalwart Gavrikov and...well, a few depth players in Raddysh, Dowling and Morrow. There shouldn't be any sizeable expectations of those three players, but Gavrikov will definitely be an upgrade defensively on Miller.
This Rangers team has essentially doubled down on its core, including star winger Artemi Panarin, blueliner Adam Fox, and goalie Igor Shesterkin. None of those three players had an good year typical of them at the NHL level, but teams and players go through sub-par strethes and rebound from them, and that's what Blueshirts GM Chris Drury is banking on.
If things somehow go right for the Sabres and Rangers next season, there's a possibility the teams eventually meet in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Granted, that would take a particular game of plinko from the hockey gods to make happen, but again, the Sabres and Rangers have that built-in relationship that should be developed as much as possible. If the teams aren't going to be in the same division anytime soon -- and that's even if expansion winds up having an effect on the current divisional setup -- then the schedule-maker can continue giving us three games in the season.
Know Your Enemy, Sabres Metropolitan Edition: Will Devils Remain Formidable Metro Team -- And Will New Jersey Once Again Beat Sabres In Season Series?The Buffalo Sabres are a team that needs to make a playoff appearance this coming season. But in a continuing series, we're examining each of Buffalo's Eastern Conference-rivals that could be in the way of the Sabres making it into the post-season. And in this file, we're examining the rivalry between the Sabres and New Jersey Devils.
If Shesterkin in particular can look like his old self, the Rangers should be in the mix for a wild card berth. It's now within the realm of possibility, though, that the Sabres take advantage of their games against the Blueshirts and play a key role in the Rangers missing the post-season for the second straight season. And if that's what happens for the Rangers next year, we can see Drury totally dismantle his core and start with a new group.
Between then, we're going to get three games between the Sabres and Rangers. And while there are some Sabres opponents who don't move the needle as playing especially-intriguing games against Buffalo, the Rangers are not one of those teams. And given the tightness of the playoff race in both conferences, the games between the Sabres and Rangers are likely to be highly-entertaining.
Who do we like to win those three games? Well, not to be all safe about it, but we see Buffalo -- for the second straight season -- winning two of their three games against the Rangers. It's hard for any team to sweep an opponent given the modern-day parity of the league, but the Sabres have what it takes on paper to beat the Rangers more often than they lose.
Know Your Enemy, Sabres Metropolitan Edition: Sabres Could Be Battling Up-And-Coming Blue Jackets For Wild Card BerthThe Buffalo Sabres are one of the teams most desperate to make the Stanley Cup playoffs next season. And one of the teams the Sabres could be battling for one of the two wild card berths next season is another team desperate to end a prolonged playoff drought -- the Columbus Blue Jackets.
We'll see how our prediction lands, but it will nonetheless be intriguing to watch the Sabres/Rangers games this season. They've both got some solid components, but there has to be a desperation to both teams' attack. If not, it will be a long season, and an even longer summer next year, for the team that doesn't get into the post-season.
Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Anthony Stolarz appears to be in peak offseason training mode.
The 31-year-old’s goalie coach, George Bosak, shared a video of Stolarz training on Instagram earlier this week. The 6-foot-6 goaltender commanded the crease as players fired shots at him from his left and right sides.
“Anthony Stolarz has been looking very sharp in workouts,” Bosak wrote in the post’s caption. “The first thing he said to me this summer is that there’s unfinished business on the table. I know he is incredibly grateful for all the fan support in Toronto and is motivated to bring home a title for the Maple Leafs faithful.”
It was an up-and-down season for Stolarz, who dealt with two significant injuries throughout the year. After a strong start with Toronto, where he had 10 wins and a .927 save percentage in 17 games, the goaltender picked up a knee injury in December, forcing him to miss nearly two months.
Stolarz returned in early February and finished the season with a .926 save percentage (the best among NHL goaltenders who played 30-plus games) and 22 wins in 34 games. He entered the playoffs as Toronto’s starting goaltender, helping them get past the Ottawa Senators in the first round.
However, things took a turn when Stolarz took a forearm to the head courtesy of Florida Panthers forward Sam Bennett in Game 1 of the second round. He was diagnosed with a concussion and didn’t play another game for the Maple Leafs in the playoffs, only returning to backup Joseph Woll in Game 7 against the Panthers.
Stolarz is entering his second season of a two-year, $5 million contract he signed with Toronto last summer. Last season was the first in which Stolarz was heavily relied upon as a goaltender in the NHL.
He played with the OHL’s London Knights in junior hockey and had Dale Hunter as his coach. The 65-year-old looked back on Stolarz’s time with the Knights on Wednesday while on The Fan Morning Show with Ben Ennis and Brent Gunning.
“Yeah, he had all the makeup for it. Sometimes it takes longer for goalies. He played for us. He brought us to the Memorial Cup. Unfortunately, we ran into this Nathan MacKinnon guy, and he got us,” said Hunter.
“[Stolarz] played very well. He's in a good place right now. Being an ex-London Knight, I watch him a lot. He's confident and he looks like he's ready to roll for the Leafs.”
Stolarz has a .918 save percentage and a 116-64-39 record in 142 games with the Philadelphia Flyers, Edmonton Oilers, Anaheim Ducks, Panthers, and Maple Leafs. His 34 games played with the Maple Leafs last season were a career high.
This article originally appeared on The Hockey News: 'There's Unfinished Business': Anthony Stolarz's Summer Training In Full Swing Ahead Of Second Season With Maple Leafs
(Top photo of Stolarz: Nick Turchiaro / Imagn Images)
Ottawa Senators defenseman Nik Matinpalo is coming off a rookie NHL season that can best be described as unexpected.
At this time last summer, Matinpalo was a 25-year-old Finnish pro who had gone undrafted in the NHL, and had just completed his first year of pro hockey in North America. That included 67 games for the Belleville Senators, scoring 14 points, and four games with no points for Ottawa.
Very few people thought he was in line to be an NHL regular last season.
But after starting the year with Belleville again, playing in 24 games for the AHL club, he was able to overtake the injured Jacob Bernard-Docker and Travis Hamonic on the Ottawa depth chart. He went on to play 41 NHL games plus all six Stanley Cup Playoff games for the Senators.
He also represented Team Finland in the NHL's Four Nations Face-Off event in February and at the World Hockey Championships in May. To cap off his turnaround season, Matinpalo signed a two-year, one-way contract with Ottawa, just a few days after the club was eliminated.
The deal will pay him $875,000 for each of the next two years, and because the contract was taken care of so quickly after the season, it looked from the outside like an NHL job was all but assured.
Ottawa Senators AHL Team Signs Owen Sound Attack's Top ScorerThe Belleville Senators announced Tuesday the signing of Landen Hookey to a two-year American Hockey League contract.
Despite giving Matinpalo that two-year contract and a bit of security, the Senators didn’t mince words during exit meetings, making it clear that nothing is guaranteed this fall.
"Yeah, they said that I need to train hard," Matinpalo said on Thursday on the Coming in Hot podcast. "And when I come into training camp, I need to think like I'm not on the team. I need to boost myself to be better every day this summer. So yeah, I think that was the biggest message to me."
That's some tough love. But in hindsight, they may have been preparing him for what was about to happen because Matinpalo's clear path back to his NHL job has been quickly littered with new obstacles.
The club brought back right-shot defenseman Lassi Thomson, a former Sens first-rounder and fellow Finn. Then they went out and acquired LA Kings right-shot defenseman Jordan Spence in a draft-day trade. And of course, their first-round pick from last year, Carter Yakemchuk, is another right-shot who's hungry to reach the NHL as soon as possible, especially after being the team’s final cut last season.
That certainly changes things, especially if Nick Jensen is healthy and ready to start the season.
Outdueling those players may prove to be a tougher challenge than last season’s leapfrogging of two players whose NHL stock has fallen sharply over the past couple of years. But Matinpalo will trust his own game and try to stay in the headspace that worked for him last year, when he didn’t let the stage get too big.
"Yeah, I think I'm not that young anymore. Like, maybe this is the last chance for me to play in the NHL. So maybe that was the one thing. Like, I'm just gonna trust my game and do whatever takes to play."
Ottawa Senators Prospect Piling Up More Penalty Minutes At World Junior Summer ShowcaseOne of the defining traits of the Ottawa Senators' 2024 NHL Draft class was the team's clear preference for size. While amateur scout Don Boyd says the organization didn’t enter that draft thinking they would deliberately go after bigger players, forsaking all others, that's certainly how it worked out.
Matinpalo’s real life has already surpassed his dream, which was about as modest as it gets for an NHL prospect.
"Everybody always thinks they can play (in the NHL). But when you go to training camp, you see there's like 15 D-men already. So I'm not really thinking I'm gonna play in the NHL. But of course, that was the motivation, like, I want to play one game in the NHL. Or that's it. Maybe I wasn't thinking about that too much. But that was the dream, playing that one game."
Times change, and so can goals and dreams.
Matinpalo says he still has a lot of developing to do, and the two-year contract affords him more time to improve. But given his spectacular learning curve from last season, one suspects he might be right back in the thick of things at camp this fall.
You can listen to Matinpalo's full interviewhere.
By Steve Warne
The Hockey News Ottawa
Image Credit: Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images
Who Are The Top Five Fighters In Ottawa Senators History?
Sens Rewind: The Year Jason Spezza Became Ottawa Senators Captain
Formenton's Lawyer: 'The Crown Knowingly Forged Ahead With A Hopeless Prosecution'
Mark Stone Jokes That It Wasn't Always Easy Playing On Brady Tkachuk's Line
2018 World Junior Trial Ends: Former Senator Alex Formenton Found Not Guilty
Two Sens Prospects Set To Shine At World Junior Summer Showcase
Croatia's NHL Trailblazer: Sens Prospect Bruno Idžan Takes NHL Road Less Travelled