Here's today's NHL Nugget – this Wild Wednesday Rewind goes back to May 7, 1983, when the New York Islanders' franchise legend carried them to the Stanley Cup final.
In Game 6 of the Wales Conference final against the Boston Bruins, Mike Bossy didn't just stop at a hat trick in a series-clinching game for the Islanders.
Brian T. Dessart takes fans on a distinctive ride through the historic-laden NHL with the #NHLNugget. Check out NHLNugget.com to find where to follow NHL Nugget on social media. And for past NHL Nuggets, click here.
This is only the fourth time in the last 25 years that a player from each position has been named as finalists for the award (2022-23, 2018-19, 2009-10), and there are cases to be made for each one of these rookies to take home the hardware this season.
The challenge is determining which rookie was more “proficient” overall their first season, which is the official award criteria, when none play the same role.
Positional value has never been more important – or harder to weigh – especially in a season where all three finalists not only impressed but did so with standout numbers across the board.
This isn’t a case of one player running away with the Calder on scoring alone. Instead, it’s a rare scenario where elite production came from three different positions, each impacting the game in distinct but equally meaningful ways.
Let’s see how each finalist was proficient this season.
Lane Hutson, D, Montreal Canadiens
Hutson was thrust into the Canadiens’ lineup with a ton of hype in an organization that has been desperate for scoring from the blueline. He somehow exceeded all expectations.
Hutson led all rookies in scoring with 63 points, breaking Chris Chelios’ franchise record for rookie defenseman points with the Canadiens while also tying Larry Murphy’s record of 60 assists as a first-year defenseman. The 21-year-old is also one of three defensemen in the last 15 years to average over 22 minutes per game, reinforcing how important a role he played in the Canadiens’ campaign.
The last Canadiens player to win the Calder was goaltender Ken Dryden in 1971-72, and there hasn’t been a better candidate to win the award. In a season where several rookies stood out, none shouldered more responsibility or delivered more consistently than Hutson.
Macklin Celebrini, C, San Jose Sharks
Celebrini cemented himself as the greatest rookie in Sharks history this season. The first overall selection in the 2024 draft set Sharks rookie records in goals (25), points (63), became the first No. 1 pick since Auston Matthews to record a hat trick as a rookie and became the first Sharks rookie to record five points in a game.
Had Celebrini not missed 12 games with injury this season, there’s a really strong chance the 18-year-old would have locked this award up already. He topped first-year players in points per game (0.90) despite having the weakest supporting cast of all rookies.
Doing all this while being one of the most defensively sound forward prospects the NHL has seen in a long time is truly remarkable. Celebrini finished with 29 takeaways, tied with Auston Matthews and Sidney Crosby, and also topped the league in puck battles won per game through the opening half of the season, according to Sportlogiq.
Celebrini has become one of the most polished, well-rounded players in the NHL in less than a year since he was welcomed into the league. If proficiency is showing a high degree of competence and skill, Celebrini proved he had both without many flaws. Whether or not he wins the award, there’s no doubt that the future is bright in San Jose.
Wolf singlehandedly dragged the Flames into playoff contention down the stretch of the regular season, putting together a 29-16-8 record, 2.64 goals-against average, .910 save percentage and three shutouts in 53 games.
Alex Nedeljkovic with the Detroit Red Wings and Mike Condon with the Canadiens are the only two goalies to have started more games than Wolf in their rookie season over the past 10 years.
Considering the Flames ranked 29th in goals per game (2.68) and didn’t have any players reach the 70-point mark, it’s nothing short of miraculous that they managed to finish within a point of the St. Louis Blues for the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference – and Wolf deserves a tremendous amount of credit for keeping them afloat.
Unfortunately for Wolf, the odds are stacked against him. Columbus Blue Jackets goaltender Steve Mason was the last goaltender to win the Calder, going all the way back to the 2008-09 season. But for a once seventh-round pick to emerge as his team’s MVP in his rookie season, there’s no question that Wolf held his own with tons of skill and expertise. Enough voters noticed that from Wolf to make him at least a finalist, and time will tell if he’s determined to have been the most proficient of the bunch.
A day after Florida Panthers center Sam Bennett avoided suspension for his “accidental” elbow to the head of Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Anthony Stolarz, a former NHL defenseman and department of player safety advisor went to 'X' and started posting about what he saw.
“Was this a blatant elbow to the back of Anthony Stolarz head? YES,” tweeted Chris Pronger. “Should it have been a penalty? YES.
"Was Bennett trying to injure Stolarz, who is a former teammate from just last year? I DON’T THINK SO.
"Was he trying to rattle Stolarz? Absolutely.”
Apparently, “trying to rattle” a goalie is not an offense worthy of a suspension. Few offenses are when it comes to goaltenders.
As much as the NHL has made attempts to try and protect what is arguably the most important position on the ice, goalies are still often free game. Or, at least, it appears that way, based on the lack of supplemental discipline involving goalies over the years.
The last time a player was suspended in the playoffs for an incident involving a goaltender was 13 years ago, when Chicago’s Andrew Shaw levelled Arizona’s Mike Smith while he was playing the puck behind the net in 2012. Compared to the Bennett's collision with Stolarz, what Shaw did to Smith was worthy of jail time.
From a supplementary discipline, the question wasn’t whether Shaw should be suspended — but rather, how many games he should receive.
Sam Bennett, however, received zero games. Worse, he wasn’t even penalized on the play, which made Stolarz's eventual exit from Game 1 even harder to watch for Leafs fans who could be without their No. 1 goalie for the rest of the series.
"Goaltending is the most important position. It really is," said TSN analyst Jamie McLennan, who is also a former goalie. "And you really only notice it when you don’t have it. The nature of this is that it was the perfect storm. It wasn’t Aleksander Barkov, who has won the Lady Byng (Memorial Trophy as the league's most gentlemanly player), doing this. It’s Sam Bennett, who has a history."
McLennan, who is a self-described “goalie hugger," believes goaltenders should be protected — at all costs.
Like NFL quarterbacks, goalies are unique. They are not skaters. They don't deliver hits. And they shouldn't receive hits. That is, as long as they remain in the safety of their crease.
And yet, what Bennett did to Stolarz wasn't Shaw hitting Smith, or Milan Lucic running over Ryan Miller.
Bennett had the puck and he was driving to the net. He's allowed to do that. What he's not allowed to do is use his body recklessly, the same way that Edmonton's Viktor Arvidsson did when he ran into Los Angeles' Darcy Kuemper in a first-round series.
Still, McLennan agrees with Pronger that “this isn’t an epidemic.” Nor is it a black-and-white issue that deserves harsher discipline.
“I will always side on the goalie being safe," said McLennan. "But problem is guys get pushed and shoved and accidental on purpose. You’re allowed to drive the net. But you have to have control of your body. The goalie should be afforded his crease safely. But the water gets murky when defensemen push a guy."
The water gets even murkier when trying to determine whether it was Bennett that even caused Stolarz to leave the game. After all, Bennett wasn't the only one who hit the goalie.
In the first period, Stolarz took a shot to the head from Sam Reinhart that knocked the Stolarz’s mask off. Was Stolarz hurt on that play? Or was it a combination of the puck and Bennett's elbow that caused the injury?
As Pronger tweeted, "Did the incident from the 1st period make this blow to the head worse than it may have been?"
Complicating matters is that even after the Bennett collision, Stolarz still remained in the game and was later seen laughing with backup Joseph Woll. It wasn't until cameras saw Stolarz vomiting on the bench, followed by reports that he had to be stretchered out of the arena to a local hospital, that the true severity of the injury was realized.
"We don’t know when it happened," said McLennan. "It was either the snapshot to the face or the elbow to the head. If I put all the factors into it, yes, I could convince myself it was a suspension. But i don’t know.
"It certainly was a penalty. And you could have called it a major. But again, the goalie gets up and plays."
Welcome to The Hockey News Playoff Frenzy Live, streaming nightly during the NHL's Stanley Cup playoffs.
After the big game of the night, our experts go live to react to the match that was, break down the key moments and storylines and read your opinions.
On tonight's show, Katie Gaus, Michael Augello and Ryan Henkel react to the Carolina Hurricanes beating the Washington Capitals 2-1 in overtime to take a 1-0 series lead.
In the wake of the Los Angeles Kings’ fourth straight season of losing to the Edmonton Oilers in the first round, you knew something had to give in the Kings’ organization.
Whoever takes over from Blake has some obvious areas to address. Let’s break them down below.
1. The Defense
The Kings allowed the second-fewest goals in the regular season, but that doesn’t matter after what happened in the playoffs.
They didn’t have problems putting the puck in the net against the Oilers, averaging four goals-for per game. But the defense was a disaster, as the Kings allowed 4.50 goals against per game. It certainly wasn’t all the fault of goalie Darcy Kuemper, although his 3.74 GAA and .889 SP didn’t help matters.
You could see the Kings’ defensive struggles all over the place, including their penalty kill, which had an embarrassing 61.5 percent efficiency.
So, with that in mind, it’s obvious what Blake’s successor has to do – namely, tweak the defense corps and make the Kings harder to play against in their own zone against offensive powerhouses. That was their style all season long, but they need to replace a blueliner or two to achieve that style in the playoffs as well.
Brandt Clarke will be a year older, which should help his development, but so will 35-year-old Drew Doughty, who can’t average 24 to 25 minutes a night forever.
Effecting change on the back end won’t be easy, as there aren’t many shutdown blueliners on the UFA front this off-season. Complicating matters is that veteran blueliner Vladislav Gavrikov is a pending UFA. To keep him in the fold, the Kings will have to give him at least the $5.875 million he’s earned this season.
Letting Gavrikov walk shouldn’t be an option for L.A., but it’s the other moves the next Kings GM makes regarding the defense that will probably be the difference between the Kings getting out of the first round next spring or failing once again to follow up on a strong regular season.
A good deal of that will go to bringing back Gavrikov and fellow UFA Andrei Kuzmenko, who turned out to be a solid addition for the Kings. But the Kings also have RFA right winger Alex Laferriere to re-sign, and they need a backup goalie as well.
As you can see, the Kings’ cap space will evaporate quickly unless the new GM clears out some cap space on the trade market.
Let’s say we’re still focused on Los Angeles’ defense: would targeting experienced D-men Ivan Provorov, Brent Burns or Dmitry Orlov make sense for the Kings’ back end? None of them will come cheaply, but the allure of playing in sunny California on a team that, at least on paper, isn’t that far off from a long playoff run, could be the hook that brings in new blood for the Kings’ defense corps.
Regardless of how Blake’s successor spends the Kings’ cap space, they can’t swing and miss on the talent they do bring in. There will be huge pressure on the new GM to hit a home run with the roster changes they make, and right out of the gate, all eyes will be on Blake’s replacement in the roster and the financial choices they make.
In the collapse against the Kings, some of the coaching staff’s choices came under intense scrutiny, including a lost coach’s challenge in Game 3 that had some fans irate. The Hockey News’ Connor Doyle also said Hiller shortened the bench during the series, and their top players looked gassed at times.
But now, with Blake gone, his replacement may want to install a replacement for Hiller behind the Kings’ bench. With veterans out there, including Peter Laviolette, Dan Bylsma and John Tortorella – as well as newcomers or NHL assistant coaches who could be available – the Kings may find someone else with a different play style in mind for this squad.
There’s no salary cap limit on coaching, so if L.A. does want to move in a new direction with their coaching, it will only cost them two years of Hiller’s remaining salary. But after the disappointment of two straight first-round exits under Hiller’s tenure, the status quo may not be a viable option for Blake’s replacement.
The NHL reportedly won’t give Florida Panthers center Sam Bennett supplemental discipline after a controversial hit on Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Anthony Stolarz.
It was another physical play from a Panthers team whose competitive style walks the line between acceptable and unacceptable. Many people saw Bennett’s hit on Stolarz as completely unacceptable and reckless behavior. But as Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman and the Athletic's Chris Johnston reported, Bennett likely won't even have to pay a fine or miss a game.
It’s no wonder Florida sticks with that style.
The Panthers have already been punished for other reckless hits in these playoffs. Florida defenseman Aaron Ekblad was suspended two playoff games for a hit on Tampa Bay’s Brandon Hagel in Game 4 of their first-round series, while Florida defenseman Nikko Mikkola was fined for boarding Lightning center Zemgus Girgensons. That didn’t stop Bennett from getting physical in pursuit of the puck and making contact with Stolarz’s head.
Florida’s robust physical play is part of its identity. The Panthers led the NHL in hits with 2,446 – 233 more hits than the next-most physical team. The Panthers were also the most penalized team in the NHL, with 853 penalty minutes.
Florida coach Paul Maurice knows what his team should do to win games when they matter most. If the Panthers win games by playing overly aggressively without receiving harsher penalties that curb reckless plays, you can’t completely fault them for employing that style of play.
Bennett came out Tuesday and said there was no intent to injure Stolarz, that he reached out to the goaltender afterward, that he didn’t notice he made contact with him until later and didn't believe there was much force. That’s all fine and dandy – and as a side point, it would’ve been nice to see Bennett face media accountability Monday night after the game instead of taking the easy way out and waiting until Tuesday.
But the reality Stolarz was injured, whether it was by a shot to the mask earlier in the action, by the hit or by both, and all NHL players are supposed to be in control of themselves on the ice, regardless of intention.
Leafs coach Craig Berube clearly didn’t see Bennett’s hit as acceptable, telling media it was “clear as day” an elbow to the head. But again, imagining the Panthers are going to shy away from contact is dreaming in technicolor.
This is who they are and who they’ve been built to be, and it could be a safety concern. Unless something drastically changes, their opponents will have to be careful not to get sucked into their play and to protect themselves.
The Toronto Maple Leafs surprised a lot of people by taking Game 1 of their second-round series against the defending Stanley Cup-champion Florida Panthers.
The Panthers are rightly known as one of the best teams in the NHL right now, and they have been for several seasons. Florida plays playoff-style hockey, and the additions of Brad Marchand and Seth Jones before the trade deadline made them one to watch yet again.
So what do you do if you're facing one of the most physically intimidating teams in the league? Well, you play to your strengths, not theirs.
That's what William Nylander did for the Maple Leafs in Game 1, and the result was a two-goal, three-point effort – all in the first period – that gave Toronto enough of a boost to hang on for a 5-4 win, even after star goalie Anthony Stolarz left the game with a suspected concussion.
Nylander's first tally came in the first minute of action, sneaking a shot through Florida goalie Sergei Bobrovsky and initiating a long night for the Panthers netminder.
"It was outstanding," said Toronto defenseman Morgan Rielly. "He was feelin' it, and that obviously helps set the tone. It's nice to get the first one, and you just go from there."
Nylander has been a standout for the Leafs all season, and part of the reason is his confidence with the puck. Not only did he set a career best with 45 goals this season, but that was his third straight campaign with at least 40 tallies. He now has five goals and 12 points through the first seven playoff games, too.
But it's more than just goal-scoring. Nylander excels at carrying the puck up the ice, and contrary to many of his peers, he hangs on to it for offensive zone entries, rather than dumping it in. Because he's so elusive, the result is more offensive zone time and the chance for his teammates to catch up and get set up for scoring chances.
In Game 1, the Panthers looked slow, and whether that was a fluke or a result of their punishing first-round series against Tampa Bay, it certainly played into Nylander's hands.
Toronto also avoided getting sucked into playing Panthers-style hockey – the Leafs stuck with speed and skill, allowing Florida to take more penalties (though the Leafs' power play didn't cash in). Typically, the only way to win a mud fight is not to participate, and Toronto largely stayed above the fray.
Now it's Florida that needs to figure out how to beat Toronto in this series, rather than the other way around. Stopping Nylander will be key – but with the way he's played so far this season, it won't be easy.
"First shift for him, a huge goal, and he gets the crowd right into it," said Toronto blueliner Chris Tanev. "It set the tone for how we wanted to play. We have to continue to build on that."
Over the past 20 years, it has been standard procedure for the No. 1 overall pick to be in the NHL the following season. Not since Erik Johnson to the St. Louis Blues in 2006 has a player been taken with the first overall pick and not at least spent part of the season in the NHL.
Would the Islanders, and whomever their new GM ends up being, consider sending Schaefer back to junior hockey to have the season he should have had in 2024-25?
The New Jersey Devils' failure to make a significant addition at the NHL’s March trade deadline contributed to their first-round playoff exit.
However, it wasn't due to a lack of effort by GM Tom Fitzgerald.
According to RG.Org's Jim Biringer, Fitzgerald was interested in Ryan O'Reilly of the Nashville Predators. The 34-year-old two-way center lacks a no-trade clause, but the Predators treated him like he had one.
O'Reilly preferred to stay in Nashville, prompting the Predators to set a very high asking price. Biringer claimed they wanted three young assets in return, but Fitzgerald didn't want to pay a premium to get him.
Biringer also cited a source suggesting the Devils could move defenseman Simon Nemec or right winger Dawson Mercer this summer for a return that upgrades the roster.
Maybe Nemec and Mercer could be used in a bigger deal to acquire a superstar defenseman. Larry Brooks of the New York Post included Nemec and Mercer in his proposed trade package for Vancouver Canucks captain Quinn Hughes.
The Post pundit believes it's only a matter of time until the Hughes brothers are reunited, and it won't happen with the Canucks, pointing out that Quinn's contract expires in 2027. He thinks it's in the best interest of both teams to make this deal happen sooner rather than later.
Brooks isn't basing his proposal on any inside info from the Canucks or Devils. There's nothing in the grapevine suggesting the two clubs are discussing a reunion of the Hughes brothers, and Rutherford has indicated the Canucks will do everything they can to keep Hughes in Vancouver. Rutherford also suggested on the 100% Hockey with Millard & Shannon podcast last Friday that Hughes hasn’t told him he wants to play with his brothers, but it’s “been out there” and “people assume that.”
Nevertheless, this likely won't be the last time Quinn Hughes is linked to the Devils in the NHL rumor mill.
The NHL will look at it from every angle possible, but again, you're talking about Sam Bennett here. Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube is adamant Bennett knew exactly what he was doing.
"Elbow to the head," Berube said after Game 1. "Clear as day."
The incident comes two years and one day after Bennett knocked Matthew Knies of the Maple Leafs out with a concussion when he body slammed him to the ice. Like the Bennett elbow on Stolarz, there was no penalty called on the play.
Today's post-game video column goes more into what happened, so take a look and let us know what you think.
