NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – September 30, 2025
Rangers captain J.T. Miller injured in practice, Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck leaves practice and teammate Dylan Samberg is sidelined for weeks, an update on Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
NEW YORK POST: Rangers captain J.T. Miller left practice on Monday after suffering a non-contact injury. He appeared to strain either a groin or a hamstring attempting to shoot a puck out of the zone while falling to his knees.
New York Rangers captain J.T. Miller (NHL Images).
It’s believed Miller’s injury is a minor one, and he could return to practice on Tuesday. If not, he’ll be listed as day-to-day.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: It appears the injury looked worse than it was. Miller was hunched over in pain when he left the ice. We should learn more about his status later today.
WINNIPEG FREE PRESS: Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck cut short practice on Monday and left the ice. “He didn’t feel quite right, so he just came off,” said head coach Scott Arniel, who didn’t provide any further update on Hellebuyck’s status.
Meanwhile, Jets defenseman Dylan Samberg suffered a broken wrist during Saturday’s preseason game against the Calgary Flames. He’s expected to miss six to eight weeks.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Hellebuyck’s situation doesn’t appear to be serious. However, losing a top-four defenseman like Samberg for almost two months is a significant blow to the Jets’ blueline to start the season.
TAMPA BAY TIMES: Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy is expected to return to practice on Tuesday. He’s been sidelined since Sept. 19 for what the club called “player management”.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: In other words, Vasilevskiy was dealing with an ailment or injury that the team didn’t want to disclose because they don’t want opponents to know the details.
THE BUFFALO NEWS: Sabres defenseman Mattias Samuelsson is listed as week-to-week with an upper-body injury originally disclosed on Friday. Blueliner Bowen Byram is day-to-day with an undisclosed injury suffered during Saturday’s preseason contest with the Detroit Red Wings.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Samuelsson has been frequently injured since his full-time NHL debut in 2022-23. He appeared in 55 games this season, 41 games in 2023-24, and 62 games last season.
LEAFS NATION: Nick Alberga reports Max Pacioretty could be set to retire despite interest from multiple NHL clubs. The 36-year-old winger is working with the University of Michigan.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: No official word from the Pacioretty camp regarding his plans. He’d hoped to return with the Maple Leafs after last season, but it appears they are now overstocked at forward.
Pacioretty scored 30-plus goals six times in his 17-season NHL career, but spent the past four seasons battling injuries, including a twice-torn Achilles tendon.
If Pacioretty is retiring, he will finish his NHL career with 335 goals and 346 assists for 681 points in 939 regular-season games with the Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, Vegas Golden Knights, Washington Capitals, and Carolina Hurricanes.
CBS SPORTS: Anaheim Ducks starting goalie Lukas Dostal is considered day-to-day with a lower-body injury. Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Alex Vlasic is also day-to-day with a lower-body injury.
DAILY FACEOFF: 22 NHL players were placed on waivers on Monday. They include such notables as Minnesota Wild forward Nicolas Aube-Kubel, Carolina Hurricanes forward Skyler Brind’Amour, and Winnipeg Jets forward Phillip Di Giuseppe.
Meanwhile, former NHL enforcer Donald Brashear is returning to hockey at age 53. He is set to suit up with the Corner Brook Royals of the Central Western Senior Hockey League in Newfoundland.
Lyle
Are there plenty of lumber yards near Brashear’s new digs?
Is McSorely suiting up for the opposition?
Have a happy retirement Max. Thanks so much for the goals, the thrills and the great hockey. But most of all thanks for Nick Suzuki. Truly the gift that keeps on giving.
Yesterday I posted Cap spending on the 3 highest cost Fs and goalie tandems for each team. For what it’s worth here’s the detail on the 3 D which ranges from 27% down to 10% with 15 different percentages. Seven of the 13 teams spending less than 20% did not make the playoffs last season, nor did 9 of the 19 teams spending 20% and up. Once (if?) Luke Hughes is signed, NJ will wind up somewhere in the $20 mil range.
1. 27% Edmonton Nurse-Bouchard-Ekholm $25,750,000
2. 26% Columbus Werenski-Provorov-Severson $24,333,333
3. 25% Buffalo Dahlin-Power-Samuelsson $23,635,000
4. 24% Washington Chychrun-Carlson-Roy $22,750,000
5. 23% Minnesota Faber-Spurgeon-Brodin $22,075,000
5. 23% Nashville Josi-Skjei-Hague $21,559,000
6. 22% Colorado Makar-Toews-Girard $21,250,000
6. 22% Vancouver Hughes-Hronek-Pettersson $21,100,000
6. 22% Boston McAvoy-Hampus Lindholm-Zadorov $21,000,000
6. 22% Ottawa Sanderson-Chabot-Zub $20,650,000
6. 22% NYR Fox-Gavrikov-Borgen $20,600,000
6. 22% Pittsburgh Karlsson-Letang-Graves $20,500,000
7. 21% Tampa Hedman-McDonough-Cernak $19,950,000
7. 21% Montreal Dobson-Guhle-Matheson $19,925,000
7. 21% Seattle Dunn-Montour-Larsson $19,742,000
7. 21% Los Angeles Doughty-Ceci-Anderson $19,625,000
8. 20% Winnipeg Pionk-Morrisey-Samberg $19,000,000
8. 20% Utah Sergachev-Durzi-Marino $18,900,000
8. 20% Florida Jones-Ekblad-Forsling $18,850,000
9. 19% New Jersey Hamilton-Pesce-Dillon $18,500,000
9. 19% Vegas Theodore-Hanifin-McNabb $18,425,000
9. 19% NYI Romanov-Pulock-Pelech $18,150,000
9. 19% Dallas Heiskanen-Lindell-Harley $17,700,000
10. 18% St. Louis Parayko-Faulk-Broberg $17,580,917
10. 18% Carolina Miller-Slavin-Walker $17,495,955
10. 18% Detroit Seider-Chiarot-Holl $16,700,000
11. 17% Toronto Rielly-McCabe-Tanev $16,513,102
11. 17% Calgary Weegar-Bahl-Andersson $16,150,000
12. 16% Philadelphia Sanheim-Ristolainen-Seeler $15,200,000
13. 15% San Jose Orlov-Leddy-Klingberg $14,500,000
14. 14% Anaheim Trouba-Gudas-Helleson $13,100,000
15. 10% Chicago Alex Vlasic-Murphy-Levshunov $9,975,000
Wow Kirll Kaprizov 17 mill for 8 years crazy. Huge over pay .
Fla. only around 15-19 is great value for a 2 time Stanley Cup winner.
That it is, Sr. And being top 2 in goalie tandems – especially with Bobrovski – they’re following the old Sam Pollack philosophy of strength from the back end up.
For most of this season, however, with the long-term losses of Barkov and Tkachuk, their top 3 highest paid active forwards are Reinhart $8,625,000, Bennett $8,000,000 and Verhaeghe ($7,000,000) which drops them from 30% and 4th ($28,125,000) to 25% – just below Ottawa at $23,625,000.
Still not a bad trio of Fs.