Going for it. This is the year in the National Hockey League. Maybe more than any year before this.
The Edmonton Oilers haven’t won a Stanley Cup with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl — two of the four best players in hockey — and don’t look anything like a contender right now. New general manager Stan Bowman should be active heading into Friday’s NHL trade deadline.
This is Year 9 for Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander as Maple Leafs — all of whom have grown into sensational NHL players. With no playoff history of anything but disappointment.
With the right third-line centre and a healthy Chris Tanev, the Leafs can win the Cup this season. They are that deep. They are that good in goal. They may not have many assets to trade or much cap space, but this is the moment in time to see if a rabbit can’t be pulled from GM Brad Treliving’s hat.
The Vegas Golden Knights surprise everyone just about every year. Not just with how they play, but with how they work the system, and year after year put themselves in Stanley Cup position. They went to the final as an expansion team and then won the Cup two years ago.
The best regular-season teams in the NHL — the Winnipeg Jets and Washington Capitals — have chemistry and surprisingly deep rosters, but they may need a subtle piece this week. The danger with these kinds of teams: Do you want to upset that chemistry with the wrong kind of acquisition?
This is also the time to go for it for teams close to making the playoffs — the Ottawa Senators, Detroit Red Wings, Columbus Blue Jackets, Utah Somethings — because it’s been too long between appearances that matter.
The defending champion Florida Panthers are in need of at least one defenceman and possibly a forward of consequence if Matthew Tkachuk isn’t coming back this season. They’ve played for the Cup two years in a row. A third time would be a challenge.
Other real contenders — Carolina and Colorado — already made their big trade, which leaves Tampa Bay in a position to be active with an experienced roster of upper-echelon talent.
This is the week to go for it. And it should be fascinating viewing from all sides of the game.
THIS AND THAT
With a healthy Tanev, no matter what the Leafs end up with in any trade, they should be Cup contenders. Tanev and Jake McCabe give them a shutdown defence pair the likes of which they’ve never had before. If Tanev is not well enough to play, or be at his best — it’s hard to believe or trust anything the Leafs say about injuries — that’s trouble … An NHL GM on Connor McDavid: “He looks exhausted to me. He doesn’t look himself.” Another voice on McDavid’s slow season: “He looks like he’s come to the conclusion the Oilers aren’t good enough and that’s eating away at him.” … Here is the built-in problem for this trade deadline: There isn’t a lot of quality for sale, unless the rental, Mikko Rantanen, is somehow available. There are more buyers right now than there are sellers and not everyone has declared. And the quality players out there, starting with Brayden Schenn in St. Louis, come at a very high price right now. Prices will change between today and Friday. In Schenn’s case, he has three years left at $6.5 million a year. St. Louis is still a semi-contender in the West. This is complicated. You won’t get Ryan O’Reilly for a Fraser Minten or Easton Cowan kind of deal. You’ll need much more than that to land him … This is typical: Lou Lamoriello has yet to inform anyone of his plans for pending free-agent centre, Brock Nelson. There’s lots of interest in Nelson out there … Word from Nashville: The Predators don’t want to trade O’Reilly and O’Reilly, himself, doesn’t want to be dealt … In a perfect world, the Leafs would like to come away with a third-line centre and a depth defenceman from the deadline. But here’s their challenge: They have next to no prospects that teams seem interested in. They don’t have a first-round pick this year. They will need whichever team they are trading with to eat some salary. And they have little cap room to work around. If they can’t come away with a centre they want, look for them to deal for a depth winger of some kind … If there were voting for a Leafs MVP this season, a three-man ballot would include Tanev, Marner and Nylander. It wouldn’t include the captain, Matthews … The biggest Leafs difference this season, other than coach Craig Berube and consistently sharp goaltending, has been their breakthrough left wingers, Matthew Knies and Bobby McMann. Knies moved past Matthews in goal-scoring Friday night, McMann is one goal behind Marner. With John Tavares, the Leafs have six dangerous scorers. If Nick Robertson is in the lineup, that’s seven potential goal-scorers. If Max Pacioretty plays, that’s eight. How many teams have that? … Reports out there have had Tavares already agreeing to terms on a $7-million contract for next season. The truth: That number has never been discussed between Tavares and the Leafs. There won’t be any deal, likely, until after the playoffs. The same may happen with Marner, but it’s getting down to nervous time for the Leafs with their free-agent winger.
HEAR AND THERE
The 4 Nations Face-off was an incredible event, but the fallout from it won’t impress NHL owners. The Tkachuk brothers haven’t played an NHL game since the tournament, heading into Saturday night. Matthew has made more appearances on late night TV talk shows than on the ice for the Panthers. Since the tournament ended, Matthews, McDavid, Jack Eichel, Drew Doughty, Shea Theodore and Charlie McAvoy, all of them great players, have either not played for their teams, played somewhat ordinarily, or have been nursing injuries … The pace of the tournament and the speed of the games took its toll on more players than expected … Matthews, the best goal-scorer in the world, hasn’t scored on a goaltender in 13 games. He has one empty-netter in that time, playing for both the Leafs and Team USA, which combined went 9-4 in those 13 games. Unusual for him, Matthews has 13 assists in his past 13 games … Guess who leads the NHL in scoring since Jan. 1? The answer: David Pastrnak of the Boston Bruins. Should the Bruins find their way back into the playoffs, Pastrnak becomes a Hart Trophy candidate. He has 36 points in 2025, four more than Draisaitl, Nikita Kucherov and Clayton Keller of Utah. The only players to be top-five before Jan. 1 and after the New Year are Draisaitl, Kucherov and Nathan MacKinnon … Explain this: McDavid is 37th in scoring since the new year started … Teams are worried about what the Panthers might do at the trade deadline. Bill Zito is one of hockey’s most inventive GMs. And he has cap space to play with. The Panthers never really replaced Brandon Montour and Oliver Ekman-Larsson from their Cup championship team of a year ago … With 14 forwards on Team Canada for the 2026 Olympics, I want Brad Marchand to be one of them, even if it means he’s the last forward on the roster. GM Doug Armstrong needs to find roster spots for Tom Wilson, Mark Scheifele, Wyatt Johnston and possibly Nick Suzuki, Rob Thomas and Connor Bedard, which means some 4 Nations forwards such as Anthony Cirelli, Travis Konecny and Seth Jarvis may be in trouble to make the Olympic team … What do the Red Wings and Minnesota Wild need at the trade deadline? For starters, penalty-killers. They’re tied for last in PK at a deplorable 70%. Dallas leads at 85%.
SCENE AND HEARD
This is spring training at every park, every season: This year, I’m going to have a great year. This year, I’m going to make a difference. The past is the past, doesn’t matter what happened before. The sun shines. Everybody is happy. There’s a whole lot of blah, blah and blah and then the season begins and with it comes reality … The one bounce-back season I expect: Bo Bichette. The bounce-back season I don’t necessarily expect, after three seasons of diminishing statistics: George Springer … And nobody can tell you 30 days from the Blue Jays opener whether Will Wagner, Davis Schneider, Addison Barger or Joey Loperfido are real major-league players or just interchangeable 25th or 26th men on the roster … A penalty for the wayward Vancouver Canucks and nobody else: Too many Petterssons on the ice … Here’s what makes no sense to me: The Raptors didn’t just trade for Brandon Ingram. They traded for him and then signed him to a giant-sized contract. And they don’t know when he’ll next play a game or if he’ll even play a game this season. Or, why he has missed more than 20 games just about every season. It’s all this great expensive mystery … If I’m looking for an agent, I’ll happily hire Ingram’s representative. All of that money and you don’t have to do anything to get it … Fifteen years ago on Friday, Sidney Crosby scored the golden goal in Vancouver to win Olympic gold for Canada on the last day of the 2010 Games. Doesn’t seem like that long ago.
AND ANOTHER THING
It’s Academy Awards Sunday and, as you might know, I’m a movie nut. I see just about everything. I see dead people. My three favourite films this year, in order: 1. A Complete Unknown; 2. Anora; 3. Conclave. My favourite films rarely win best picture. Best acting performance, man or woman, I saw: Kieran Culkin in A Real Pain, a movie that won’t be for everyone, but it worked for me … The Green Bay Packers are right. The ‘tush push’ should be outlawed in football. Offensive lineman are paid to block people and create holes, not to push their own players and grab them from behind to gain extra yardage … Why doesn’t Travis Hunter, the Heisman Trophy winner, get any kind of Shohei Ohtani comparisons? He plays offence and defence at such a high level that NFL teams can’t figure out whether he’s a wide receiver or a defensive back in the upcoming draft? Isn’t playing both ways the football equivalent of pitching and hitting home runs? … The Golden State Warriors are 7-1 since they traded for Jimmy Butler and since Draymond Green announced they would win the NBA championship. And everybody who is anybody on Friday was drooling over Steph Curry’s 56-point night on Thursday. As we saw in Paris, he is still that special … You don’t hear much about Shai Gilgeous-Alexander because he plays in Oklahoma City, because he’s not loud or controversial, because he isn’t a look-at-me kind of basketball player. He is, however, the NBA’s leading scorer: The most recent time he faced Golden State, he scored 52 points, while Curry had just 21 … Between them, Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo have won five MVP awards in the NBA. Both are having MVP-worthy seasons again. The only way SGA wins is if the voters are bored of taking Jokic or Antetokounmpo year after year … If there’s such a thing as the comeback player of the year in the NHL it has to be Andrei Vasilevskiy, the Tampa Bay goalie. The once greatest goalie in the world is back in form, second behind Connor Hellebuyck in wins, first in games started, second in save percentage, third in goals against average. The best reason to finish first in the Atlantic Division is to avoid playing Tampa in the opening round of the Stanley Cup playoffs … I’ve been going to Florida hockey games for more than 20 years. Time was the stands were semi-empty and the ticket prices were cheap, parking was free and the atmosphere almost non-existent. Went on Thursday to watch the Oilers play the Stanley Cup champions, and what a difference! The place was rocking. The atmosphere was fan-friendly. Everybody was dressed in red. This was a hockey crowd at its best … Happy birthday to Max Domi (30), Tomas Kaberle (47), Henrik Lundqvist (43), Ron Francis (62), Tyreek Hill (31), Ja’Marr Chase (25), Ben Roethlisberger (43), Tua Tagovailoa (27), Justin Bieber (31), Pat Boutette (73), Alex Steen (41), Tony Castillo (62) and Booker T (60) … And hey, whatever became of Danny Markov?