National Hockey League

National Hockey League

Nikolaj Ehlers notched a hat trick and added an assist; Taylor Hall scored twice; and Mark Jankowski lit the lamp and had a pair of helpers in the rout. Andrei Svechnikov, Eric Robinson and Alexander Nikishin also lit the lamp for the Hurricanes, who went 4-for-5 on the power play to empathetically ended a two-game losing streak.

Anaheim Ducks forward Leo Carlsson is expected to miss three to five weeks after undergoing a procedure to address a rare left-thigh injury, a Morel-Lavallée lesion. The timeline puts Carlsson's availability for Olympic preparation in serious doubt and forces Sweden's selection staff to begin contingency planning sooner than expected.

In a season where the Maple Leafs' offence has been up and down, the Leafs have gotten reliable scoring game in and game out from someone you may not expect. Oliver Ekman-Larsson has been a name that has stuck out to many. The Swedish defenceman sits fifth in Maple Leafs scoring this season with 28 points in 47 games. This finds Ekman-Larsson within the top 25 in the NHL.

At times during last night's matchup between the NY Islanders and the Edmonton Oilers, it looked as if the Isles were chasing the Oilers through extended shifts over and over. But despite the Oilers' superstars controlling the puck, the Isles stood tall defensively and had a brick wall in net. The Isles have fared well against opposing superstars this season, especially two who are widely considered the top two forwards in the league, in Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon.

The Washington Capitals fired assistant coach Mitch Love in October following an NHL investigation into his personal conduct. According to RG's Sergey Demidov, Love has found his next job, signing a contract to become the KHL's Shanghai Dragons' new head coach on Saturday. The Shanghai-based team, which plays their home games at Saint Petersburg's SKA Arena, had an opening after former NHL bench boss Gerard Gallant recently departed for health reasons.

"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.

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.

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.

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.

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,