The Chicago Blackhawks traded Taylor Hall what seems like half a season ago, but he has now appeared in 20 games for the Carolina Hurricanes. While the Blackhawks should have gotten more for him, a third-round pick was fine as the team was looking to move on from him anyways and go with younger players.

Hall is going to get his playoff run, and at a great time, he has stepped up and really found his stride with the Hurricanes, his seventh team in the NHL.

The veteran has six goals and 11 points since heading to Carolina, but after just one goal and two points in his first 12 games, he has turned back the clock with five goals and nine points in his last eight games including a hat trick in his previous game against the Anaheim Ducks.

Hall is on the Hurricanes' second line with Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Jack Roslovic and it seems to be working. He is shooting more and hitting much more since joining his new team as not only do the Hurricanes control the puck more and get shots from everywhere, they forecheck hard and Hall has bought in.

The 33-year-old has fit in well in Carolina and some will be cheering for him to raise the Stanley Cup as the Blackhawks aren't in the race this season.

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Vegas Golden Knights forward Jack Eichel has been named the NHL's second star of the week.

The 28-year-old scored two goals and seven points in three games, helping the Golden Knights post a 3-0-0 record, beating the Boston Bruins, Detroit Red Wings and the Tampa Bay Lightning. 

His seven points brought Eichel into sole possession of the most points by a Golden Knights player in a season, while also setting a new career high that will continue to rise. 

In the 2024-25 campaign, Eichel's scored 23 goals and 87 points and his recent offensive outburst has him back on pace to eclipse the 100-point mark.

Here's what the NHL's press release had to say about Eichel's stellar week:

"Eichel led the NHL with 2-5—7 in three appearances to also power the Golden Knights (42-20-8, 92 points) to a perfect week. He collected a pair of assists in a 5-1 victory against the Boston Bruins March 20. Eichel followed that with 1-3—4, his 11th career four-point performance and second of the season (also Oct. 9 vs. COL: 0-4—4), in a 6-3 triumph over the Detroit Red Wings March 22. He capped the week with his 39th career game-winning goal (and third of 2024-25) in a 4-2 decision versus the Tampa Bay Lightning March 23. The 28-year-old Eichel places fifth in the League with a career-high 23‑64—87 through 69 total contests this season. He also sits among the top 2024-25 performers in power-play assists (2nd; 29), assists (t-3rd; 64), power-play points (t-3rd; 33), even-strength assists (t-9th; 34), plus/minus (t-10th; +30) and even-strength points (t-12th; 52)." 

Filip Gustavsson (@mnwild), Jack Eichel (@GoldenKnights) and Dylan Holloway (@StLouisBlues) have been named the NHL’s “Three Stars” presented by GEICO for the week ending March 23.#NHLStats: https://t.co/Vhmt4wQGpVpic.twitter.com/a4lOrHtNMu

— NHL Public Relations (@NHLPR) March 24, 2025

Minnesota Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson was named the first star of the week, posting a 3-0-0 record, including a shutout, a .976 SV% and 0.67 GAA. The Golden Knights will travel to Minnesota to take on the Wild on Tuesday. The NHL's third star of the week was St. Louis Blues' Dylan Holloway, recording one goal and seven points in four games. 

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ST. LOUIS -- The NHL has announced its three stars of the week for the week ending March 23, and St. Louis Blues forward Dylan Holloway has been named the third star, behind Minnesota Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson and Vegas Golden Knights forward Jack Eichel.

Holloway had seven points (one goal, six assists) in four games, helping the Blues (37-28-7) go 4-0-0 over the past week to vault the team four points clear of the Calgary Flames for the second wild card spot in the Western Conference; the Blues are currently on a six-game winning streak. 

Holloway had three assists in a 4-1 win against the Nashville Predators last Tuesday, then on Thursday, he had a goal and an assist in a 4-3 overtime win against the Vancouver Canucks and capped the weekend with an assist in back-to-back wins over the Chicago Blackhawks(4-1) Saturday and Predators (4-1) on Sunday to extend his point streak to seven games (three goals, eight assists). It is tied for the longest active streak in the NHL. 

Overall, Holloway led the league with six assists for the week while his seven points shared the lead and his plus-5 rating shared third.   

Holloway is third on the Blues with 58 points (23 goals, 35 assists).

Seattle Kraken assistant coach Bob Woods coached in his 1000th game on Saturday against the Edmonton Oilers. 

A 10th-round pick in the 1988 NHL draft, Woods would never receive the opportunity to play in the NHL but was an effective player in the minor leagues, skating in 751 games in the AHL, ECHL and IHL. 

Woods began the transition into coaching while still playing as an active player, serving as a player-assistant coach for four years. Following his retirement, Woods was hired to be the head coach of Mississippi Sea Wolves in the ECHL and did so for an additional four seasons.

Woods would move to an assistant coach role for the Hershey Bears in the AHL before becoming the head coach for about a season and a half. The Washington Capitals decided it was time to give Woods his first sniff of the NHL life in 2009, promoting him to be an assistant coach of their NHL squad. 

Outside of the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons when Woods left the NHL to be the GM/HC of the Saskatoon Blades in the WHL, Woods has served as an assistant coach since his debut with the Capitals.

He's spent time with the Capitals, Anaheim Ducks, Buffalo Sabres, Minnesota Wild and now the Kraken. 

The Kraken fell short in Woods' 1000th game, losing 5-4 to the Oilers on the road. Woods is in charge of the penalty kill and the defensive aspects for the Kraken, and while injuries and trades have hampered the Kraken, the team has struggled to be consistent in that aspect.

They rank 23rd in goals allowed per game and 22nd in penalty kill percentage, both marks that could also be better if goaltending faired similarly to the previous season. 

Despite that, Woods has a tremendous history of turning young defensemen into all-star calibre players, and he's attempting to do so now with Ryker Evans. HC Dan Bylsma is a fan of Woods' reputation and believes he can do the same with the Kraken.

“Bob has done a great job with lots of different types of defensemen in different places,” said Bylsma. “There’s John Carlson with Washington; a young Cam Fowler in Anaheim; 21-year-old Rasmus Ristolainen in Buffalo; and Gary Suter, Jared Spurgeon and Matt Dumba in Minnesota. At every stop, now here, he’s always been able to establish relationships with all those players and every defenseman he coaches to get them playing their best not only for the team but playing their best hockey.”

When you read some of the names Woods has worked with, you'll realize just how long he's been in the NHL and it's a testament to his ability to adapt to the always-changing and evolving game. 

“The game has changed,” said Woods. “Plus, you've got analytics. You have so many more tools now [to evaluate players]. It's become a big part of the game. I think the players are basically still the same, maybe changed a little bit. If you're honest and ask what they think, I find being able to communicate is a big thing then and now. Is it hard to make decisions [about players and playing time]? Absolutely, but I've always believed, if you know it's the right decision, it's not a tough decision ... As coaches, we're always learning. Whenever you think you don't need to learn anymore, you're going to be in trouble. If you don’t you stay up with things, you will be left out.”

As it stands, the Kraken have the sixth-best odds of landing the first overall pick, which could very well be Matthew Schaefer. The Kraken are yet to draft a defenseman in the first round, and if they elect to do so, having Woods with the organization to help develop him could be very beneficial. 

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The former Minnesota Wild forward Pat Maroon announced on Saturday before the Chicago Blackhawks' game against the St. Louis Blues that he will be retiring after this season. 

Maroon, 36, announced on Saturday he would retire after this season and after the game, the Blues named him the first star of the game. Maroon got to hear the roar of the St. Louis crowd for one final time. He won a Stanley Cup with St. Louis in 2019. 

The 6-foot-3 forward played one season in Minnesota during 2023-24. He recorded four goals, 16 points, and 71 hits in 49 games for the Wild and was eventually traded to the Boston Bruins at the 2024 NHL trade deadline. 

He signed a one-year contract with the Blackhawks after the 2023-24 season and has five goals, 18 points, and 96 hits in 61 games. 

Draft pick watch: Bruins' lottery odds improve after sixth straight loss originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

When the Boston Bruins traded away several veteran players, including captain Brad Marchand, before the March 7 NHL trade deadline, they had the ninth-worst record in the league based on points percentage.

Fast forward to Monday, March 24, and the B’s are tied with the Pittsburgh Penguins for the seventh-worst record after another embarrassing loss Sunday night. The Los Angeles Kings extended the Bruins’ losing streak to six games with a 7-2 victory over the Original Six franchise.

If Bruins management was hoping for a post-trade deadline downturn that would improve the team’s chances in the 2025 NHL Draft lottery, it has come to fruition so far.

This is the worst Bruins team since the 2015-16 squad that missed the playoffs. Sunday’s defeat marked the 12th time Boston has allowed six or more goals in a game this season, the most for the team since the 2006-07 campaign, per 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Ty Anderson.

Moving up two spots in the lottery order over the last few weeks might not feel like a massive jump, but it would be hugely beneficial to the Bruins to end up with the No. 7 overall pick in the first round of the 2025 NHL Draft compared to the No. 9 pick.

The Bruins desperately need an infusion of elite-level young talent to bolster what is considered one of the three-worst prospect pools in the league. This draft has plenty of good centers in the top 15 picks, and that’s a position Boston very much needs to upgrade.

What are the chances of the Bruins falling further in the standings? Well, they would really have to collapse, and get some help from other teams, to fall a few more spots.

The fifth-worst record — currently occupied by the Philadelphia Flyers, based on points percentage — is probably the furthest the B’s could drop. However, the Bruins have the sixth-easiest remaining schedule in the league from now through the end of the regular season, so there are a bunch more winnable games still left for this team.

If the Bruins do finish with the seventh-worst record — which is where they stand today (tied with the Penguins) — here are the odds they’d have in the draft lottery, per Tankathon.

• No. 1 pick: 6.5 percent
• No. 2 pick: 6.7 percent
• No. 3 pick: 0.2 percent
• No. 7 pick: 44.4 percent
• No. 8 pick: 36.5 percent
• No. 9 pick: 5.6 percent

The Bruins could jump up as high as No. 1 or fall as low as No. 9 in the lottery if they finish with the seventh-worst record.

There isn’t much left for the Bruins to play for over the final 10 games of the regular season. The best outcome for the B’s over this span would be to lose as many games as possible and then get lucky in the draft lottery next month.

Jonathan Kovacevic left the Montreal Canadiens last offseason when Kent Hughes sent him to the New Jersey Devils in a swap that saw the Habs land a fourth-round pick in 2026. Since then, the right-shot defenseman has earned a regular spot in the Devils’ top four, forming a pair with Brian Dumoulin and signing a 5-year contract with a $4M cap hit.

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The Devils were having a good season, but things got a bit more complicated lately, with superstar Jack Hughes suffering a season-ending injury, just like defenseman Dougie Hamilton. New Jersey is 4-6-0 in its last 10 games and now only has 80 points, ranking third in the Metropolitan division.

After another loss on Saturday night, this time against the Ottawa Senators, Kovacevic spoke to the media and said:

We’re in a fight, and hopefully, that will get us to that playoffs mentality. We’re 10 or 11 games out, and we carry that into the playoffs, so…yeah, obviously, the results are tough, but we’re in a fight here, and we won’t back down.

His declaration was relayed to the Devils’ coach, Sheldon Kiefe, and the journalist didn’t have time to finish relaying it before he cut him off, saying:

Kovacevic just needs to play better. That would help.

This is not exactly the kind of comment a player likes to hear from his coach, but we’ve seen much worse in Montreal, this is nowhere near Michel Therrien throwing P.K. Subban under the bus after a turnover led to a defeat against the Colorado Avalanche:

We played hard, and I thought we played a very solid game; it’s too bad an individual mistake cost the game late in the game. […] As a coach, I thought he could have made a better decision at the blueline and move the puck behind, and he put himself in that position. […] We play as a team, and unfortunately at the end of the game, when we don’t play as a team with get in trouble and that’s what happens.

In three and a half years behind the Canadiens’ bench, we’ve yet to see Martin St-Louis do that to any of his players, and I don’t think we will see it. When he’s disappointed, he generally says he needs to look at the tape and address what needs to be addressed with the right person in due course.

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