The 2025-26 Anaheim Ducks will attempt to close this elongated rebuilding chapter of the organization's history, having missed the playoffs in each of the last seven years.

As constructed, the roster features very few players in their prime and is unlikely to include a rookie who plays all 82 games in the NHL. Thusly, individual NHL awards will probably elude the Ducks come season’s end.

However, one member of the organization is favored among peers to earn a major award when it comes time for the NHL to hand them out: Joel Quenneville.

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Per NHL.com, the Jack Adams Award is given annually to the NHL coach “adjudged to have contributed the most to their team's success.” The NHL Broadcasters’ Association votes on the award.

Per BetMGM, newly hired head coach of the Anaheim Ducks, Quenneville, is the favorite to win the Jack Adams with +700 odds. He edges out Utah Mammoth head coach Andre Tourigny (+750), Montreal Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis (+900), and Columbus Blue Jackets head coach Dean Evason (+1200).

Traditionally, the Jack Adams is awarded to either the coach whose team greatly improves in the standings from the year before, unexpectedly making the playoffs, or to the coach whose team is overwhelmingly the best in the NHL’s regular season.

After the Washington Capitals eked into the playoffs in 2023-24 with 91 points, Spencer Carbery won the 2025 Jack Adams after the 2024-25 Caps tallied 111 points and locked up the top seed in the Eastern Conference.

Rick Tocchet’s 2022-23 Vancouver Canucks and Daryl Sutter’s 2020-21 Calgary Flames hovered around NHL .500 in the season before each coach took home their respective Jack Adams Awards in 2024 and 2022.

Jim Mongomery’s 2022-23 Boston Bruins and Bruce Cassidy’s 2019-20 Bruins were particularly dominant, earning their coaches the Jack Adams Award to pair with the organization’s Presidents’ Trophies in those years.

The 2024-25 Ducks made a substantial improvement in the NHL standings from the 2023-24 team, improving from 59 points to 80 points. A self-imposed mandate to make the 2026 playoffs indicates the team expects to make another considerable leap, as the threshold to earn a Western Conference Wild Card spot has required a minimum of 97, 95, 98, and 96 points in each of the last four seasons.

After nearly four years away from the NHL, Quenneville was hired by the Anaheim Ducks on May 8 and brings with him a sparkling resume and an elite assistant coaching staff (Jay Woodcroft, Ryan McGill, Andrew Brewer, Tim Army, and Peter Budaj) at his flanks. Quenneville has won 969 NHL games (second-most in NHL history behind Scotty Bowman) in his coaching career with the St. Louis Blues, Colorado Avalanche, Chicago Blackhawks, and Florida Panthers from 1997 to 2021, winning three Stanley Cups with the Blackhawks in 2010, 2023, and 2015.

It’s more than reasonable to assume that if the Ducks achieve their lofty goal of reaching the NHL playoffs in 2025-26, Joel Quenneville will receive Jack Adams votes, and if they comfortably achieve that goal, he’ll run away with the award.

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The Columbus Blue Jackets have 41 days until opening night at Nationwide Arena. Today we look at the history of jersey #41. 

Let's take a look.

Matt Davidson - 2000-03 - Davidson was drafted by the Buffalo Sabres in the 4th round of the 1995 NHL Draft. He is a native of Flin Flon, Manitoba, the same town as CBJ bench boss Dean Evason. 

Davidson was traded to the Blue Jackets as part of an expansion draft deal in 2000. He played parts of three seasons for the Jackets, totaling 56 games, and had 12 points. He spent most of his time with Columbus playing for the Syracuse Crunch of the AHL. 

He left North America in 2004 for Europe. He played in Germany, Finland, Denmark, and Sweden before retiring in 2011.  

Brad Moran - 2001-04 - Moran was drafted by the Buffalo Sabres in the 7th round of the 1998 NHL Draft. 

The Jackets signed Moran as a free agent in 2000. He only played in 5 games as a Blue Jacket and had 2 points. He spent most of his time playing for the AHL Syracuse Crunch. In his final year with the Crunch in 2004-05, he played in 80 games and had 72 points. 

Moran left for a second stint in Europe in 2011 and played the last six years of his career there. He would retire after playing two seasons in the EIHL in 2017. 

Moran would be the GM and HC of the Calgary Canucks in the Alberta Junior Hockey League from 2018 to 2025. For the 25-26 season, Moran is signed on to be the Asst. Coach of the WHL's Calgary Hitmen. 

Ben Simon - 2005-06 - Simon was drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks in the 1997 NHL Draft. 

Simon, a native of Shaker Heights, Ohio, played 13 games for Columbus during the 2005-06 season. He totaled zero points. He left for Europe and played one season in the EIHL in England. He retired in 2011. 

Simon moved into coaching almost immediately after retiring. His first head coaching job was for the Cincinnati Cyclones in 2013-14 for one season. He spent 5 years as the Head Coach for the Grand Rapids Griffins of the AHL. He has been an assistant for the Iowa Wild for the last two seasons. 

Adam Pineault - 2007-08 - Pineault was drafted by Columbus in the 2nd round of the 2004 NHL Draft.

Pineault only played in 3 games for the Jackets and had zero points. He spent most of his time playing for the Syracuse Crunch of the AHL. On January 10, 2009, Pineault was traded by the Blue Jackets to the Chicago Blackhawks for Michael Blunden.  

After playing two years in Europe, he returned to North America and would play three more seasons before retiring in 2014. He suffered a jaw injury that ultimately ended his career. After retiring, he moved into pharmaceutical sales after his wife was diagnosed with Leukemia.

Allen York - 2011-12 - York was drafted by Columbus in the 6th round of the 2007 NHL Draft. 

York played in 11 games and started 5 of those for the Blue Jackets. He went 3-2 with a .920 SV%. He signed with the Nashville Predators on a PTO but was never signed. 

York would never play another game in the NHL after his time in Columbus. He spent time playing in the AHL, ECHL, and other various lower leagues around North America. He also spent five years as a goaltending coach in various leagues. 

He retired on March 4, 2016.

Alexander Wennberg - 2014-20 - Wennberg was drafted in the 1st round of the 2013 NHL Draft as the 14th overall draft pick. 

Wennberg came to North America and made his NHL Debut in 2014. After having three decent seasons, including a 59-point year in 2016-17, Wennberg was signed to a six-year deal on September 1st, 2017. 

Tom Wilson would seemingly derail Wennberg's career in the 2018 playoffs when he laid a devastating check on him. The next two seasons, Wennberg would only total 47 points. In October of 2020, the CBJ would buy Wennberg out, making him a free agent. The Jackets are finally about to make the final buyout payment to Wennberg this year. 

In addition to playing with the Florida Panthers since leaving Columbus, He's played for the Seattle Kraken, New York Rangers, and San Jose Sharks. After the 59-point season he had in 2016-17, Wennberg hasn't scored more than 38 points in a single season.

Hunter McKown - 2022-23 - McKown was an undrafted free agent out of San Jose, California. 

McKown has played 12 career games with the Jackets, all in 2022-23. He has spent the majority of his time playing for the Monsters. In the last two seasons, he has played in 121 games and has 55 points. 

This summer, he was signed to a one-year, two-way contract by GM Don Waddell. 

There are 41 days until opening night at Nationwide Arena. Who was your favorite #41? 

Let us know what you think below.

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A member of the Florida Panthers defensive corps was the recent recipient of a major honor back in his homeland.

It’s no secret that Latvia has emerged as one of the most hockey-crazed nations in Europe.

Earlier this summer, Panthers defenseman Uvis Balinskis brought the Stanley Cup back home to Latvia.

During his special day with the Cup, Balinskis shared it with youth players at two local Latvian rinks before enjoying some intimate time with his close friends and family.

Last week, Balinskis shared in another special moment back on his home soil.

Latvian Prime Minister Evika Silina invited Balinskis to the Palace of Justice inside the Latvian capital of Riga.

This must have been an amazing experience and extreme honor for Balinskis, who has worked his way from the KHL to the Czech Extraliga to the AHL to the NHL, all while keeping an incredible attitude and making his fellow countrymen extremely proud.

Photos of the visit were posted on social media and can be seen below:

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Photo caption: Jun 17, 2025; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Florida Panthers defenseman Uvis Balinskis (26) hoists the Stanley Cup after winning game six of the 2025 Stanley Cup Final against the Edmonton Oilers at Amerant Bank Arena. (Sam Navarro-Imagn Images)

When looking back through Pittsburgh Penguins’ history, there are so many moments that ended up changing the course of the franchise and of NHL history. 

Such was the case 26 years ago on Sept. 1, 1999.

Leading up to that fateful day, the Penguins were in a bad spot financially. They were more than $90 million in debt and had just filed for bankruptcy in November of 1998. It was looking more and more like the Penguins would need to be relocated outside of Pittsburgh.

Then, the man who had previously been a franchise icon on the ice stepped up to become the team’s hero off of it, too. 

Earlier in 1999, Mario Lemieux had already started a process to purchase the Penguins from then-owners Howard Baldwin and Morris Belzberg. At the time, the team owed Lemieux $32.5 million in deferred salary during what was his first retirement, which began in 1997 after a long battle with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. 

The plan? Lemieux took $20 million of that deferred salary to invest into an ownership stake in the team, as his ultimate goal was to keep the Penguins in Pittsburgh under a new ownership group that included him in the mix. He took $5 million more out of that toward operating expenses, and he completely deferred the remaining $7.5 million altogether. 

The result? Lemieux got billionaire investor Ron Burkle in on the purchase as well, and he and Burkle bought the team from Baldwin and Belzberg for $107 million. The team’s debts were paid off by 2005, and Lemieux and Burkle officially saved the Penguins from relocation and kept the already-storied franchise in Pittsburgh.

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Sept. 1, 1999 holds such a significant place in Pittsburgh’s history for a lot of reasons. For one, it was one of the closest times the team ever came to relocation - the issue re-emerged in 2007 when the team faced liquidation and, allegedly, got pretty close to moving to Kansas City - and Lemieux and company saved the team from the eventuality of that fate.

It also cemented the indelible tether between Lemieux and the Pittsburgh Penguins. Of course, Lemieux since sold the Penguins to Fenway Sports Group (FSG) in December of 2021, and - despite rumored interest in re-purchasing the team from FSG - is now only a minority shareholder in the organization.

But his legacy is still all over it. 

Prior to owning the team, Lemieux - drafted first overall by the Penguins in 1984 - led the team to back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 1991 and 1992 and was the face of the franchise, even beyond his first retirement. Health setbacks caused him to miss significant time, and he did make a brief NHL comeback that stretched from December 2000 to January 2006 - and he got to pass the torch and play alongside new franchise icon Sidney Crosby for a brief time before hanging up his skates for good.

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Throughout his all-too-short playing career, Lemieux amassed 690 goals and 1,723 points in 915 NHL games. His on-ice performance would have been enough to cement his place as both the greatest Penguin of all time and one of the greatest - arguably, the greatest - NHL players of all time. 

But the fact that his love for Pittsburgh and the Penguins didn’t stop at his playing days speaks to how much inevitability is associated with Lemieux and the franchise. He singlehandedly took the mantle to save the team in 1999, and he did it with a little more help again in 2007. He won three more Stanley Cups as an owner in 2009, 2016, and 2017. He became a mentor, a friend, and - for a little while - a landlord to Crosby, who has followed in Lemieux’s footsteps by sticking it out with the Penguins through some tough times. 

In fact, Lemieux’s decision to purchase the Penguins in 1999 changed the entire culture of the franchise. It prioritized a winning culture and gave other all-time great players in Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang the example and the motivation to remain loyal to the team that drafted them. 

That culture was even special enough to set the stage for an eventual reunion between Jaromir Jagr - another Penguins’ and NHL all-time great - and the Penguins despite a tumultuous end to Jagr’s time in Pittsburgh as a player. 

With the 1999 purchase, Lemieux not only made the Pittsburgh Penguins his personal business. He also created a culture of family, and that is something that has gone hand-in-hand with the organization and its players, coaches, and staff ever since. 

No matter what happens in the Penguins’ future - and whether his name is listed as an owner in any capacity or not - Mario Lemieux left his mark on the Penguins’ franchise and will be forever remembered and revered for his hand in making Pittsburgh a hockey town for good.

And that doesn’t figure to change anytime soon.

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