NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – August 29, 2025
Remembering Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau, Mitch Marner talks about leaving the Maple Leafs for the Golden Knights, Kings captain Anze Kopitar talks about the possibility of retirement, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH/CALGARY HERALD: The hockey world is remembering NHL star Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew, who were killed by an alleged drunk driver one year ago today.
Johnny Gaudreau 1993-2024 (NHL Images).
Johnny, 31, was preparing for his 12th NHL season at the time of his death. He spent nine seasons with the Calgary Flames from 2013-14 to 2021-22 before signing with the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2022.
NHL.COM: The Gaudreaus are being remembered by Team USA during its Olympic orientation camp. Defenseman Zach Werenski, Johnny’s teammate with the Blue Jackets, admitted it had been an emotional year, saying he’s learned a lot about himself, about his teammates, friendship, and family.
THE ATHLETIC: The brothers’ parents, Guy and Jane Gaudreau, were briefly hospitalized after learning their sons had been killed. Guy had elevated heart and blood pressure levels, while Jane was in what family members described as a catatonic-like state.
Guy and Jane have since recovered, but continue to deal with the grief as they try to carry on with their lives. Guy is considering coming out of retirement to teach hockey to his sons’ children, while Jane has returned to work as a finance associate at Archbishop Damaino School.
Widows Meredith Gaudreau (Johnny’s wife) and Madeline Gaudreau (Matthew’s wife) formed a charitable foundation to honor their late husbands.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: My thoughts are with the Gaudreau family today. A year later, I still cannot adequately put into words the sorrow I feel for their loss.
TSN: In an interview with Mark Masters, Mitch Marner opened up about his bittersweet departure from the Toronto Maple Leafs. After nine seasons with the Leafs, he joined the Vegas Golden Knights on June 30 in a sign-and-trade situation.
Marner said the hardest goodbye was with Leafs captain Auston Matthews. Both joined the team in 2016-17 and spent most of their playing time as linemates. Defenseman Morgan Rielly and winger William Nylander were also Marner’s teammates throughout his tenure in Toronto.
“We really came in together and grew together and really leaned on each other for a lot of things,” Marner said. He admitted it was difficult calling those players to let them know what was happening, but both sides understood it was part of the business.
While Marner and his wife loved living in Toronto full-time and being close to family and friends, they felt it was time for a new chapter. He admitted it was tough sometimes because of the media scrutiny that surrounds the Maple Leafs.
Marner revealed that he hired a mental health coach to help him deal with the grind and the negative comments over the final three years of his Leafs tenure. That included dealing with threats that prompted him to have full-time security at his home for two weeks after the Leafs’ season ended last spring.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: It’s one thing for fans to boo players during the game or be critical of their performance. Heaping abuse on them away from the rink and making threats against them crosses the line.
Whatever you think of Marner as a player or a person, he didn’t deserve what he faced during his final years in Toronto. No player does, and stories like that won’t make it easier for the Leafs to attract talent.
MAYOR’S MANOR: Los Angeles Kings captain Anze Kopitar made his first public comment this week regarding retirement. The 38-year-old center told KCAL News that the coming season could be the last of his playing career.
Kopitar is the longest-serving player in Kings’ history, playing a team-leading 1,434 regular-season games. He’s also their leader in career assists (838) and is set to surpass Marcel Dionne’s record of 1,307 regular-season points.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Kopitar has spent his entire NHL career with the Kings. Entering his 20th season, he’s still their top-line center and their best two-way forward. Nevertheless, he’s in the final season of his contract and in the twilight of his playing career.
SPORTSNET: Team Canada general manager Doug Armstrong won’t let the on-ice fistfight that occurred with Team USA during the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament in February affect the roster construction of its Olympic roster.
“I’ve thought quite a bit about that tournament as a whole, and I think the Olympics are going to be played very similar to that, minus (nine) seconds,” said Armstrong. “If you win the front of your net and the front of their net, you have a chance to win the game. We’re going to build a team that can win in those areas, but we’re not going to build a team that can participate in those nine seconds.”
SPECTOR’S NOTE: As the article points out, the Olympics will be played under IIHF rules, in which anyone who drops the gloves will be assessed a match penalty. It’s doubtful we’ll see the Tkachuk brothers and J.T. Miller trying to initiate a brawl against the Canadians in that tournament.
THE HOCKEY NEWS: Ottawa Senators GM Steve Staios confirmed having positive preliminary contract extension talks with Shane Pinto’s representatives. However, a deal won’t be signed before the start of the upcoming season. He indicated they’ll let the season begin and not have Pinto become distracted with contract talks.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Pinto is in the second season of a two-year contract with an average annual value of $3.75 million. The 24-year-old center will be eligible to become a restricted free agent with arbitration rights next July.
DAILY FACEOFF: Speaking of the Senators, the Allen Americans have become their ECHL affiliate.
Can’t possibly imagine what the Gaudreau family went through this time last year – and now. Thoughts and prayers with them.
I dont understand how anyone turns thier passion of their favorite team into hate and abuse of any individual particularly one part of that team.
Question, while the Olympics are being played on nhl size rinks they are still being played under international rules right?
If so it would be beyond stupid for anyone to engage is throwing knuckles.
On the RFA front, Pittsburgh C/LW Vasiliy Ponomarev, Winnipeg RW Rasmus Kupari & Detroit LD Eemil Viro have signed deals in Europe but since their NHL rights were not transferred they remain property of their NHL teams and retain RFA status. They cannot be signed by other NHL teams without a trade or a qualifying offer being made and accepted.
For similar reasons Ottawa still holds RFA rights of one of the 5 acquitted – Alex Formenton – but it’s highly unlikely he will ever resume his career here, once cleared by the NHL
Puckpedia also continues to show RFA LD Donovan Sebrango (who came over from Detroit as part of the DeBrincat trade) among the main roster complement, the reason being that, once signed, he must remain with the top club or clear waivers if they try and send him to Belleville in the AHL. That is likely at the crux of the delay in getting him signed, and it wouldn’t surprise me to see him involved in a deal very soon with a rebuilding team that might be prepared to give him a long look on their D.
He has good size at 6’ 2” 220lbs and does play with a bit of an edge, but with Ottawa’s LD side covered by Sanderson, Chabot and Kleven his chances of getting any meaningful playing time are slim, unless there is an injury. In their system he’d be the first call-up in that event since they are thin on that side – but because he’d likely be grabbed off waivers, they have a dilemma.
Re: Marner. Both him and Matthews have played together on the same line consistently with Keith. Babs refused to put them together so they didn’t play together on a line for a majority of their time here.
As for what triggered him to leave was, he said, someone posted his home address after the loss in game seven against the Panthers. I don’t know about you but I’m pretty sure there was a time not too long ago everyone’s address and phone number were found on every corner and delivered to every home in a thing called a phone book.
I do t get it, instead of staying and proving everyone wrong, he decided it would suit him better to leave. I guess he didn’t want his child to know his father isn’t a superman and have to read all the dumb and often ignorant comments about him. But wouldn’t that be a better reason?
Who cares? Have fun in Vegas. I’m sure you and your wife (possibly and undoubtedly a factor in all this) made a smart choice. Vegas is a great place to raise a child.
Yep nobody threatens anybody in the states. While nobody deserves to be threatened or bullied, to packup and move from a Canadian city to an american city because of threats makes it a joke. Good luck sending your kid to school now Mitch
Haven’t heard of threats happening over a hockey game in the states. It’s hard to say a vocal minority should cause a whole team and fan base to be punished but for those people that did the threatening and those that don’t condemn it should have the leafs moved right on out of town. There are a lot of fans up there that don’t deserve an nhl team.
Kind of an anomaly in terms of distance …. the Senators brought their AHL affiliate from Binghamton, N.Y. to Belleville, Ontario ostensibly to have that roster closer to home.
But their ECHL affiliate couldn’t be much farther away from both Ottawa and Belleville, based in Allen, Texas.
God bless the Gaudreau family. On another note Anze Kopitar has been one of the NHL s unsung heroes his entire career. I put him on the same page as Patrice Bergeron. Boston has never been the same since Bergie retired. Will be interesting how the Kings evolve.
That Pinto situation in Ottawa has all the potential ingredients to develop into a real bone of contention by this time next year, especially if he has another comparatively-productive season despite playing largely 3rd line minutes and reduced pp time. Unless Cozens can be convinced to move to his natural RW spot.
As matters now stand, their 1st line C is 6’ 195lb left-shot Tim Stutzle ($8,350,000 per to 2031) taken 3rd overall by Ottawa in 2020. Over 367gp he has 115g 211a 326pts for 82-game averages of 26g 47a 73pts.
On the 2nd line is Cozens ($7,100,000 per to 2030), a right-shot C 6’ 3” 210lbs taken 7th overall in 2019 by Buffalo and dealt for C Josh Norris. Over 362gp he has 82g 131a 213pts for 82-game averages of 19g 30a 49pts.
Pinto, a right-shot C 6’ 3” 205lbs, was taken 32nd overall in 2019 by Ottawa. Over 210gp he has 51g 56a 107pts for 82-game averages of 20g 22a 42pts. With arbitration rights next year, and another solid season given his 3rd line role, he might well command a lot more than Ottawa – or any team for that matter – is prepared to fork over to a 3rd liner – especially one who, by his two-way effectiveness, is anything BUT a 3rd liner.
Depending hugely upon how this season goes -both for the team and the above 3 – at the next trade deadline one of them could enter the trade rumour category.
The Pinto situation could go off the rails easily based on past dealings and Staios should be ready to sign him as soon as possible as opposed to waiting.
Sens are in the enviable position of having too many good centres. Pinto is listed as a 3C but in my opinion he’s a 2C all day long.
Love to have him on the Habs at 7m x 7
I was saying to one of my grandsons just recently – imagine having to pay Beliveau – Henri Richard – Jacques Lemaire from about 1955-56 to 1970-71 under a hard cap system!