NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – September 16, 2025
Sidney Crosby addresses trade and “tanking” talk, the latest Islanders and Canadiens news, Drew Doughty hopes to play for Canada in the 2026 Olympics, remembering Hall of Famer Ed Giacomin, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
PITTSBURGH HOCKEY NOW: Penguins captain Sidney Crosby directly addressed recent speculation suggesting he might welcome a trade out of Pittsburgh.
“This is where I want to be. I love it here,” Crosby said. “I can’t keep having to answer the same questions over again (just) because of these narratives. If people want to write about that or say that, that’s fine. I can’t really control that.”
Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby (NHL Images).
Crosby also dismissed the notion that the Penguins should tank the season to improve their chances of winning the 2026 Draft Lottery. “You play to win,” he said. “That’s how I view it, and you’re not going to convince me otherwise. If you’re one of the people that believe that, then you’re entitled to believe that, but that’s not why I signed up to play the game. That’s not the game I know.”
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The trade buzz about Crosby arose from a comment made last week by his agent, Pat Brisson, acknowledging the possibility of his client asking for a trade one day. Some observers took his comments to mean that Crosby wouldn’t want to stick around if the rebuilding Penguins continue to miss the playoffs.
Crosby is in the first season of a two-year contract. He could decide at some point that he wants one last shot at playing for the Stanley Cup and could request a trade to a contender. However, it doesn’t sound like he’s currently considering that possibility.
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW: The impending return of former Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury for a preseason practice on Sept. 26 and a preseason game on Sept. 27 has led to a surge in ticket prices for both events.
Prices for Penguins preseason games are typically between $20 and $25. For the Fleury game, the prices range from $235.00 to $2,975.00 on Ticketmaster.
Fleury formally retired after last season, but his return for those two events will allow him to retire as a Penguin.
NEW YORK POST: Islanders forward Mathew Barzal said he is good to go entering training camp after missing the end of last season with a kneecap injury. He indicated that it has fully healed, and now it’s a matter of getting back to being the player he was mentally.
CBS SPORTS: Barzal’s teammate, Bo Horvat, will be ready for the upcoming start of training camp. He had suffered an ankle injury playing for Canada at the 2025 IIHF World Championship in May, but has indicated he’s feeling great and is ready for the start of this season.
DAILY FACEOFF: Islanders winger Anthony Duclair revealed he tore his groin muscle right off the bone five games into last season, which sidelined him until late December, but he admitted he returned too soon.
The injury hampered Duclair’s performance, prompting head coach Patrick Roy to publicly criticize his play as “god awful” following a loss to Tampa Bay in early April, prompting Duclair to take a season-ending leave of absence.
Duclair said Roy personally visited him following the season to apologize for his comments, and they worked things out.
THE MONTREAL GAZETTE: Canadiens defenseman Lane Hutson walked back his father’s comments regarding his son being passed over for Team USA’s Olympic orientation camp.
Rob Hutson raised the possibility of Lane, who has dual citizenship, playing for Canada. However, Lane shot that down, saying he’s a proud American and loves USA Hockey. While he loves playing in Canada, he stated that he’s a USA Hockey Player.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Hutson could still be selected for Team USA’s final Olympic roster. Otherwise, he’ll get more opportunities to play for his country in the World Championships, the 2028 World Cup of Hockey, and the 2030 Winter Olympics.
MONTREAL HOCKEY NOW: Jeff Gorton, the Executive VP of Hockey Operations for the Canadiens, said Kirby Dach has made good progress in his recovery from a season-ending knee injury.
“He looks great,” Gorton said. “He feels great, he’s healthy. We have a plan in place to have him ready for opening night. So, that’s what we’re going to try to do.” However, he stopped short of guaranteeing that the 24-year-old center will be ready to go by then.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Back-to-back knee injuries have hampered Dach’s efforts to secure the Canadiens’ second-line center role.
SPORTSNET: Speaking of Gorton, the Canadiens are in contract extension talks with him and general manager Kent Hughes.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: That’s not a surprise considering the pace of the Canadiens’ rebuild. The club wants to ensure both men stick around to complete the job.
NHL.COM: Los Angeles Kings defenseman Drew Doughty remains determined to secure a place on Canada’s Men’s Olympic hockey team at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
“I expect to be on the team,” Doughty said. “I know it’s going to be hard for me to make it, but personally I expect to be on that team. I do think making the best team in the world at 36 years old is quite an accomplishment. That would be amazing. I’ve honestly been thinking about this way too much and it’s still so far away.”
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Doughty won gold with Canada in the 2010 and 2014 Olympics, and he was part of their gold-medal team in February’s 4 Nations Face-Off.
NEW YORK POST: Hall of Fame goaltender Ed Giacomin passed away on Sunday at age 86.
Giacomin spent most of his 13 NHL seasons with the New York Rangers (1965-66 to 1975-76), becoming one of the league’s top goaltenders. A fan favorite in New York and a skillful puckhandler, he was a First Team All-Star in 1966-67 and 1970-71, and shared the Vezina Trophy with teammate Gilles Villemure in 1970-71. He and Villemure backstopped the Rangers to the 1972 Stanley Cup Final.
Claimed off waivers by the Detroit Red Wings on Oct. 31, 1975, Giacomin got the start for the Wings against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden two days later, where the Rangers fans chanted his name throughout the game, moving him to tears.
Giacomin played with the Red Wings from 1975-76 to 1977-78 before retiring. He had a career record of 290 wins, 209 losses, and 96 ties in 690 regular-season games with a 2.82 goals-against average, a .902 save percentage, and 54 shutouts. Giacomin was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1987.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: My condolences to Giacomin’s family, friends, former teammates, and the Rangers organization. I remember watching him play during the early-70s and was impressed by his acrobatic style and his ability to handle the puck. He played a big role in turning the Rangers into a Stanley Cup contender during those years.
Hutson s father revealed one true fact,to much parental involvement. Your son is a Pro,grab a coffee,sit down and watch him play.You embarrassed your son so that he had to walk back on your comments.Not only that but he plays in one of the Mecca s of the NHL ,Montreal.
I wanted to try to take my son to that preseason game. Wasn’t quick enough. The resellers snatched all those tickets up fast. Damn shame.
Sid said, and IS saying the right things.
In his heart he wants to stay here.
That said, there is no way Brisson didn’t sound off last week without Sid’s pre-approval.
Brisson was sending a shot across Dubas’ bow: “ Get some trades done, get them done fast, improve this team post-haste, or we’re out of here”
Of course Sid would love to play out his career here. But he’s one of the most (perhaps the most) competitive guys in the NHL.
He hates to lose.
5 years of straight losing and no playoffs is a death sentence to him.
Without some reasonable changes (finally) soon; I am now more in belief he moves on than finishing his career here.
I (and I hope most) will be very sad , but not at all mad, that he leaves. We in no way should blame him.
At TDL, even if we somehow were in last; we still only have a 25% chance at McKenna (some say Crosby might embrace the mentorship role in his final year).
That’s 75% chance of NOT getting McKenna, and still bottoming out.
What a cruel way to end an illustrious career.
Knowing Dubas:
—he’ll screw this up;
—we lose Sid at TDL;
—Dubas gets much less in trade than is warranted;
—-a player coming back in the trade is a retread that fails miserably in 26/27
—We still end up near bottom
—We don’t get McKenna next June; and
—once again Dubas goes waaaay off script and picks at 3rd or 4th OA; a pip-squeak (cite Kendell) that was ranked late 1st round
We’ll still watch you Sid as you beam once again lifting the Cup under a different set of colors.
You know Jack and squat about what Crosby did or did not say. Are you privy to the content of private conversations between the player and his agent? No. If one did occur it might have gone like this: Hey pat, say what ever you want, but I’m a Pittsburgh Penguin for life.
Thank you.
Agree
Neither one of us know exactly what was said privately Brisson to Sid and visa versa
I stand by my assertion that Sid DID have a conversation (re public statement by Brisson) beforehand; knew the gist of what he was going to say; and supported the gist of it.
You may call it speculation that they actually had a conversation beforehand. I don’t in any way doubt it, Brisson has been Sid’s agent for 2 decades! Why would he ever spout off so candidly and controversially without previously speaking to Sid about it? Literally makes no sense.
I stand by my assertion that Sid will be in no way, happy playing his last 5 seasons on a losing team and missing playoffs 5 years in a row
I stand by my assertion that Dubas absolutely needs to do something. Doing nothing and Pens back to picking in the 8th -12th spot ; with upset fans increasing in number
I in absolutely no way believe the conversation went something like “Hey pat, say what ever you want, but I’m a Pittsburgh Penguin for life.”
He may have said “Hey pat, say what ever you want, but publicly I’m going to continue to say that I’m behind this team”
That’s a possibility.
There is literally zero chance that Brisson has not discussed the end game and the possibility (even if the possibility is small) of Sid moving on from the Pens.
All current scenarios and many of the potential future scenarios will have already come up in conversation
We’d be foolish to think that Brisson has never asked Sid his thoughts about ending his career with Mac K or on Habs, etc etc
No way that this has never come up in conversation between the two.
The “what if” conversations happen between every player and agent. Even on remote possibilities; the “what if” conversations happen
Listen to Sid’s statements from last week (where he didn’t go to his normal shutdown (of moving on) statements. Sid’s interview last week did not shut the door (publicly) as it had before.
That (along with Brisson’s statements) is why there was a big uptick in the potentiality of Sid leaving comments and media speculation on same.
The more recent statements (of the weekend ) were when he (Sid) was interviewed WHILE delivering tickets to season ticket holders. Why would he be back to last week’s non “shut the door” statements WHILE delivering tickets to fans homes?
Reading your comments leads me to think that you might possibly be mad/upset AT Sid if he decides to leave. Will you??
I will be upset/sad; but absolutely will NOT be mad /upset AT him; and I will in no way blame him.
If he decides to move on, he has the right to do so; has earned the right and respect to do so on his terms; and IMHO , would be justified in doing so.
You and I will disagree on this until the cows come home; but I fully support him if he has had enough here and wants to move on to get back into the playoffs.
8787
If Crosby wanted out of Pittsburgh for any reason, he had an incredibly easy way to do it. Don’t negotiate and sign a 2 year contract extension. Being the kind of person he is, he would have told Dubas and everyone else that he was willing to accept a trade before last season’s TDL so that Dubas could get a major haul of futures to accelerate the rebuild.
Since he didn’t agree to be traded last season and he did sign an extension this summer, the only logical conclusion is that he intends to finish his career with Pittsburgh. As he’s said for some time now.
Eddie Giacomin outstanding goaltender, he finished his career in Detroit but in my mind forever a NYR.
He was well respected in Montreal,.
habfan30: He certainly was. In fact, I think he was well respected around the league. Never heard anyone have a bad thing to say about Giacomin.
As a rabid Habs fan back then, I can never forget that 1972 Cup series when the 5-time All-Star was primarily responsible for the elimination of the heavily favoured Canadiens in 6 games, highlighted by a mind-blowing save against the Big M, that had Frank visibly talking to himself!
Whether a Rangers fan or not you just had to admire “the stickhandler.”
R.I.P.
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