NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – August 21, 2025
Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews addresses Mitch Marner’s departure, Stuart Skinner believes the Oilers will bounce back more quickly from their Stanley Cup Final loss this time, Patrik Laine hopes to stay in Montreal, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
TORONTO SUN: Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews admits that he and his teammates will miss Mitch Marner, who departed for the Vegas Golden Knights in a sign-and-trade situation on June 30.
Toronto Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews (NHL Images).
“We’ll miss him,” Matthews said. “He’s a great friend, great teammate. That’s kind of the business side of it that’s tough, but obviously I wish him nothing but the best. We’ll just keep it moving.”
Matthews missed 15 games last season with an undisclosed injury. He said that his health was good and he will be at “100 percent” for the start of the 2025-26 season.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: A lot of Leafs fans won’t miss Marner, who became their whipping boy for the club’s poor postseason record over the last nine seasons. However, his departure leaves them thin on right wing. Beyond William Nylander, the level of talent drops significantly.
The addition of playmaker Matias Maccelli should offset some of the missing offense if he regains his 57-point form of 2023-24, but he won’t fully replace Marner’s two-way skills.
THE SCORE: Edmonton Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner believes his club will rebound more quickly from losing the Stanley Cup Final to the Florida Panthers than they did in 2024.
“Going through it the second time, which is obviously devastating, but being able to say you went through this does actually help you get over it quicker, just because you have to go back into training and do it all over again.”
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Oilers could find it a more difficult challenge staging a third straight run to the Cup Final. They still haven’t addressed their inconsistent goaltending, and their limited cap space could make it harder to bolster their roster before the trade deadline.
TVA SPORTS: Patrik Laine would love to remain with the Montreal Canadiens beyond this season. The 28-year-old winger is eligible to become an unrestricted free agent next July.
“Yes, of course,” Laine told Anthony Martineau of TVA Sports. “I don’t think I need to say more. Yes, I would love to be here.”
Laine spent most of the offseason training in Montreal. He believes the Canadiens are on the right track and expects they’ll be even better this season.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Laine’s future in Montreal depends on his performance this season. He struggled through an injury-shortened campaign in 2024-25, but finished with 20 goals in 52 games, drawing praise from Canadiens management for helping them qualify for the playoffs.
Laine recently said that he’s fully healthy approaching training camp. He could have a productive year if his good health carries over into this season, which would improve his chances of getting a contract extension.
RG.ORG: Sergei Fedorov said he felt “a flood of emotions” after being informed that the Detroit Red Wings will retire his No. 91 in January as part of their centennial season celebrations. The ceremony will be held at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on Jan. 12, 2026.
Fedorov spent 13 of his 18 NHL seasons with Detroit before departing as a free agent in 2003. “I was always a Red Wing,” he said.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Fedorov’s relationship with Red Wings management was never the same following a messy contract holdout in 1997-98. His departure in 2003 left some bad feelings among Wings fans. However, Fedorov has been received more warmly by the organization and the fans in recent years, especially after he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2015.
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE: Connor Ingram has been cleared by the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program to return to the Utah Mammoth. The 28-year-old goaltender entered the program on March 9 to deal with mental health issues.
SPORTSNET: The Carolina Hurricanes announced that Jesper Fast will rejoin the organization as a development coach. He announced his retirement in June after missing last season recovering from neck surgery.
THE TENNESSEAN: The Nashville Predators signed forward Brady Martin to a three-year entry-level contract. Martin, 18, was chosen fifth overall in this year’s draft by the Predators.
Easy to root for a guy like Connor Ingram and his struggles. It s easy for us to forget that these guys are just regular people and kids with all kinds of issues to confront.
Agree
Mental health is an important issue; we should all be compassionate and supportive to all (individuals and their entire support circle) who are involved
Easy to root for a guy like Connor Ingram and his struggles. It s easy for us to forget that these guys are just regular people and kids with all kinds of issues to confront.
I agree with Spector on his comments on the Oilers but I would add 2 things. Zach Hymans wrist injury to start the season and the lack of tradable assets with the CAP space issue at the end of the season.
Edmonton is among 5 of the 32 teams that, heading into the new season, have managed to “spend to the cap” with very little in reserve: Edmonton ($225,834), Philadelphia ($370,238), Dallas ($405,084), St. Louis ($625,151), NY Rangers ($777,976). Another 4 have between $1 and $2 mil in cap space: Tampa ($1,180,001), Colorado ($1,330,000), NY Islanders ($1,625,000), Toronto ($1,919,722). 4 more have between $2 and $4 mil: Boston ($2,081,667), Los Angeles ($2,668,333), Vancouver ($3,270,000), Winnipeg ($3,963,810). All but Philadelphia are committed to the 23 max, with the Flyers at 22.
Sitting with between $4 & $6 mil are these 4, with 3 of them at the full 23: Washington ($4,125,000), Ottawa ($4,294,286 and, with 1 more needed to reach 23, probably down to around $3.5 mil), Seattle ($4,599,287), Buffalo ($5,190,319). with 2 more in the 6 to $7 mil range and both with the full 23: New Jersey ($6,131,667) and Utah ($6,682,143).
Eventually aligning somewhere within the above groups will be the 3 three teams currently over the cap: Vegas – $7,638,571 with 1 RFA (Holtz) left to finalize to reach 23, Montreal – $5,931,667 and the full 23, and Florida at 22 – $3,725,000. Two have LTIR cards to play while the jury is still out on Tkachuk in Florida in that regard. Stay tuned in all 3 cases for sure.
That leave 10 teams with between $9,341,039 (Nashville with 22 signed and RFA Evangelista to finalize) and $20,538,811 (Anaheim also with 22 signed and RFA McTavish to re-up). Both will still figure to have healthy cap reserves once those contracts are signed. The others are Minnesota ($9,41,835, 22 signed and RFA Rossi to re-up), Carolina ($10,644,291 and 23 signed), Detroit ($11,992,461 and 23 signed), Pittsburgh ($13,053,571 and 23 signed), Calgary ($15,412,500, 22 signed and RFA Zary to finalize), Columbus ($15,567,501 and 23 signed), Chicago ($18,662,024 with 22 signed and RFA Kaiser to re-up), San Jose ($19,740,832 with 23 signed).
New Jersey, of course, once Hughes is signed, will drop one contract to the minors so right now it’s hard to figure where they will sit in terms of season-opening cap space.
But barring some other large contract deal in the interim, the Devils will drop down to among the lowest in cap reserve. Right now they are committed to 14F 7D and 2G but when Hughes is signed, one of those D will likely be optioned to the AHL – and the only two with 2-way deals are Casey ($950,000) and Nemec ($918,333). If it’s, say, Casey, his cap hit, added to what they currently have, will give them $7,081,666 – which may, or may not, be enough to cover what Hughes eventually gets. If that is closer to $8 mil, then obviously they have at least one other move to make.
No wonder it’s taking so long to finalize.
Without a cap dump, NJ will have to send down both their young RD defenders when they sign Hughes to a long-term contract north of $8M.
They really need to trade Dougie!
For NJ it’s good luck with that, Johnny Z.
Costing $9 mil per off the cap through the coming 3 seasons, at the end of which he’ll be 35y/o, having missed 80 of the 164 games of the past 2 seasons. and with a NMC plus a modified 10-team no trade clause, finding a mutually-agreed location will be nigh on impossible at this stage.
TML fans are going to miss Marner in a big way, and I don’t mean the one’s here who for the most part didn’t complain about him.
Laine will silence his critics this year playing in Montreal. He and his wife are embedding themselves in the community and we film of him on the ice every day.
After Sept 2nd
Laine, Price, Beck, Hage
For
Rust
Karllsson (@ 50%)
Accairi (Habs bury)
2nd (‘26…. latest of 3 picks they have)
Habs net almost $9 M in cap savings; good increase offence; get Rust and Karllsson at very reasonable approx $5 M EACH
When your playing for a contract you say and do all the right things.
Here is my prediction…Skinner is going to rebound from a poor 2024/25 reg season the oil will claim the pacific division for the 1st time in the mcdavid era. Whether that results in another long playoff run remains to be seen.
I am not saying this roster is better than the last 2 years…i dont think it is…
but I dont anticipate the brutal October recurring for a 3rd season and racking up an October reflective of a top nhl team should be enough help claim the division.
But I say this only to get to my true point which is to say I suspect by Xmas talks of extention for Skinner will begin and he will be locked into a long term deal before next summer based on his resurgence.
That is the outcome I anticipate. And one that kind of scares me.