"Yeah, absolutely," Bettman replied. "Actually, Ted took me on a tour of what's been done and what's being planned (at Capital One Arena). What's going on here is nothing short of spectacular. And sharing our tentpole events, our special events with the fans in Washington, with the Capitals, the organization, is always on the table."
The Rangers retool is official. Chris Drury and the Rangers announced- essentially copying and pasting the 2017 letter from Jeff Gorton -that they will be retooling this roster around the current core players and prospects. This comes just five games after the Rangers appeared to be turning a corner with a big win in the Winter Classic. But in those five games, the Rangers have been outscored 30-12 including four straight embarrassing showings.
After missing two games with an upper-body injury, rookie forward Justin Sourdif returned to the ice at MedStar Capitals Iceplex on Friday morning. The 23-year-old centerman wore a light blue, no-contact jersey, but was not sporting any extra protection on his helmet after taking a puck to the face against the Nashville Predators last weekend. Sourdif suffered his injury early in the second period of the Capitals' 3-2 loss to the Predators, playing just 6:16 of ice time before leaving the game.
Toronto Marlies goaltender Artur Akhtyamov was named to the 2026 American Hockey League All-Star Classic on Thursday. The festivities take place from Feburary 10-11 in Rockford, Illinois. Akhtyamov, the Maple Leafs' fourth-round pick in 2020, has appeared in 21 games with the Marlies this season, posting a record of 13-7-1 with a .898 save percentage, while his 13 wins rank 4th among all AHL goaltenders.
The NHL has announced that the 2026 NHL Draft and NHL Scouting Combine will be held in Buffalo, New York. The two-day event takes place on Friday June 26 and Saturday June 27 at the KeyBank Center in downtown Buffalo. This is the fourth time the city has held the event, which will be decentralized once again. The Sabres currently have a pick in round one, four (2), five, six (2), and seven.
We do know the Rangers considered themselves buyers as recently as the Winter Classic, with interest in Kiefer Sherwood. The asking price was a 1st round pick and more, which Vancouver is unlikely to get. We do know the Rangers offer for Kiefer Sherwood did not include a 1st round pick, but it included at least one "young player with pedigree" and a 2nd round pick, per Chris Johnston.
The Trenton Ironhawks will be the name of the relocated Utah Grizzlies franchise. The team held a naming contest that received over 2,000 submissions (unfortunately none of our submissions from part one or part two were winners). The team name was announced on Tuesday morning with a fan event held at their new home of Cure Insurance Arena that event.
Matthew Knies was absent from the morning skate. Knies has recorded 12 goals and 38 points in 43 games this season, but hasn't registered a point in his past four games. If Knies is able to play, he may be placed on the top line with Auston Matthews and Max Domi, while Bobby McMann drops down to the fourth line. McMann skated with Matthews and Domi during Thursday's morning skate.
Burned in Zach Werenski's memory is the first U.S. practice at the 4 Nations Face-Off last February. You look around and see the skill, Werenski said. I was like, This is fast.' It's wave after wave, player after player. He and his countrymen fell short at that tournament, which was designed to be an appetizer of sorts for the return of NHL players to the Olympics.
Against a team that has that much firepower, especially with [Stephen] Halliday coming back, you just can't afford to give them anything. When you turn pucks over in tough areas of the ice and leave them alone in front of the net, it makes for a long one. We couldn't overcome it. It's disappointing, but it wasn't from a lack of effort from the guys coming in. I thought they did a nice job.
It is really frustrating when you come out on the bottom of all these games where I feel like we're playing well and we're playing good enough to win,
In a more positive light, Sportsnet's Luke Fox reported following Monday night's game that Robertson was walking around fine without any implications following the game, so there's optimism that this won't be a long stint away from hockey for the 24-year-old.https://theleafsnation.com/toronto-maple-leafs-line-combinations Robertson has ten goals and 22 points in 43 games this year, already matching his point total from the year before in 26 fewer games.
Connor opened the scoring 4:20 into the first period, pouncing on a rebound after Alex Iafallo deflected Mark Scheifele's shot. Morrissey doubled the lead early in the second with a shot through traffic, and Toews made it 3-0 just 42 seconds later on a power play, sliding home a rebound from Gabe Vilardi's attempt.