NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – October 7, 2025
The regular season opens on Tuesday, reaction to the Oilers re-signing Connor McDavid, the Oilers also re-sign Jake Walman, the Bruins will retire Zdeno Chara’s number, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
NHL.COM: The 2025-26 regular season opens with a triple-header on ESPN on Tuesday.
It begins with the Florida Panthers raising their second straight Stanley Cup championship banner in a pregame ceremony before facing off with the Chicago Blackhawks. New York Rangers head coach Mike Sullivan faces his former club as his team hosts the Pittsburgh Penguins, and the Los Angeles Kings welcome the Colorado Avalanche.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Canadian hockey fans can watch these games on Sportsnet1 or TVA Sports.
EDMONTON JOURNAL: Robert Tychowski believes Connor McDavid put his money where his mouth is when he signed a two-year contract extension with the Oilers worth an average annual value (AAV) of $12.5 million.
Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid (NHL Images)
McDavid’s contract is remarkably low as he maintains the same AAV of his current deal, illustrating his seriousness about winning a Stanley Cup with the Oilers.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Most NHL pundits shared that opinion. With the salary cap set to rise significantly over the next two seasons, McDavid has provided the Oilers with the cap flexibility to maintain a Stanley Cup contender. It’s now up to general manager Stan Bowman to do so.
The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun believes some NHL teams will try to use McDavid’s new contract as an argument for why their best players should follow his example. However, it’s unlikely to have much of an effect.
Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby has been underpaid for years, partly because of his superstition about the number 87, but that didn’t prevent other superstars from seeking top dollar.
The McDavid contract wasn’t the only extension announced by the Oilers on Monday. They also signed defenseman Jake Walman to a seven-year deal worth an AAV of $7 million.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: We can already see the positive effect that McDavid’s contract is having on the Oilers’ cap space for 2026-27. Had he taken a more expensive deal, they might have had more difficulty re-signing Walman.
Acquired by the Oilers at the March trade deadline, the 29-year-old Walman quickly established himself as an invaluable member of their blueline.
BOSTON HOCKEY NOW: The Bruins will retire Zdeno Chara’s No. 33 in a ceremony before their game against the Seattle Kraken on Jan. 15, 2026.
Chara becomes the 13th player in Bruins history to have their number retired. He spent 14 of his 24-season NHL career with the Bruins, captaining them to the 2011 Stanley Cup and the 2013 and 2019 Stanley Cup Finals. He won the James Norris Memorial Trophy in 2008-09 and will be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in November 2025.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: A fitting tribute for one of the greatest defensemen in Bruins history.
NEW YORK POST: Rangers forwards Artemi Panarin and J.T. Miller are good to go for their season opener against the Penguins on Tuesday. Both players were nursing injuries during the preseason.
TSN: The Rangers also signed forward Conor Sheary to a one-year contract on Monday. He joined the team in training camp and preseason on a professional tryout offer (PTO).
CALGARY SUN: Forwards Jonathan Huberdeau and Martin Pospisil will miss the Flames’ season opener on Wednesday. Both players are on injured reserve.
NEW YORK POST: Islanders defenseman Matthew Schaefer earned a roster spot for the start of the regular season. Schaefer, 18, was chosen first overall by the Islanders in the 2025 NHL Draft.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Islanders can return Schaefer to his OHL’s Erie Otters after nine games without those contests counting against his entry-level contract. However, it’s expected he’ll be a full-time part of the Isles’ lineup this season.
TSN: The Toronto Maple Leafs claimed goaltender Cayden Primeau off waivers from the Carolina Hurricanes and forward Sammy Blais from the Montreal Canadiens.
OTTAWA SUN: The Senators made promising defenseman Carter Yakemchuk their final roster cut on Monday. He’ll start the season with their AHL affiliate in Belleville, Ontario.
They also placed sidelined forward Drake Batherson (upper body) and defenseman Tyler Kleven (ankle) on injured reserve.
NEW JERSEY HOCKEY NOW: Veteran forward Luke Glendening is expected to sign a one-year contract with the Devils after attending their training camp on a PTO contract.
NBC SPORTS PHILADELPHIA: Flyers defenseman Cam York (lower body) was placed on injured reserve.
NHL.COM: The department of player safety suspended Tampa Bay Lightning forward Scott Sabourin for boarding Florida Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad during their preseason game on Saturday. Lightning defenseman JJ Moser received a two-game suspension for roughing Panthers forward Jesper Boqvist during that game.
The Lightning was fined $100,000, and head coach Jon Cooper was fined $25,000 for their club’s actions during that game.
Rosters have been set and a new season is set to kick off, and if we were being honest, most of us are hoping for some significant trades to spice things up as the season progresses, up to and including trade deadline day on Friday, March 6. Here’s a concise compilation for easy reference as to how teams stack up in terms of cap space, most to least, followed by a list of LTIR applications – all as depicted at Puckpedia. It’s fairly easy to determine which are best poised to make deals without being overly concerned with equal dollars in and out and which can only primarily go that route:
CHICAGO $14,224,524; COLUMBUS $14,217,501; ANAHEIM $12,673,811; DETROIT $11,234,961; PITTSBURGH $11,106,653; CAROLINA $10,510,981;
CALGARY $9,690,834; PHILADELPHIA $6,640,238; MONTREAL $5,528,333; NASHVILLE $5,373,697; UTAH $4,532,143; MINNESOTA $4,411,668;
WASHINGTON $3,310,833; WINNIPEG $3,087,977; SAN JOSE $2,903,332; SEATTLE $2,488,454; OTTAWA $2,369,286; BOSTON $2,176,667; BUFFALO $2,165,319; LOS ANGELES $1,893,333; NYR $1,599,643; VANCOUVER $1,337,865;
ST. LOUIS $625,151; NYI $573,472;
COLORADO $277,839; DALLAS $148,417; TORONTO $19,721; EDMONTON $834;
TAMPA $369,999 OVER; NJ $3,995,547 OVER; FLORIDA $4,550,000 OVER; VEGAS $8,776,071 OVER & still with RFA RW Alexander Holtz to re-up.
How and IF teams will use LTIR is anyone’s guess at this point, but certainly those over the cap will have to go that route. This is a list of those definitely or possibly out long-term (if I’ve overlooked anyone, please comment)
CHICAGO – Weber $7,857,143 – Brossoit $3.3 mil;
DALLAS – Benn $1,000,000
FLORIDA – Tkachuk $9.5 mil – Barkov $10,000,000;
EDMONTON – Hyman $5,500,000;
LOS ANGELES – Perry $2,000,000;
MINNESOTA – Matts Zuccarello $4,125,000;
NJ – Kovacevik $4,000,000 – Noesen $2,750,000;
NY ISLANDERS – Varlamov $2,750,000;
PHILADELPHIA – Ristolainen $5,100,000;
ST. LOUIS – Krug $6.5 mil;
S.J. – Price $10.5 mil – Couture $8 mil – Ellis $6.25;
SEATTLE – Kakko $4,525,000 – Evans $2,050,000;
TAMPA – Paul $3,150,000
VANCOUVER – Hoglander $3 mil;
VEGAS – Pietrangelo $8.8 mil
WPG – Lowry $3,250,000 – Samberg $5,750,000;
P.T.O LW/RW Noah Gregor is signed to a 1 year $775,000 deal by Florida, who also added Tomas Nosek & his $775,000 cap hit to the LTIR list. They are now $6,100,000 over the cap. Another P.T.O., LW/RW Conor Sheary, also earned a 1 year $775,000 two-way deal with the NYR, but he’s been assigned to their AHL affiliate.
And it didn’t take long for Jonathan Toews to pull up lame – he starts the season on IR.
Roster adjustments over the past couple of hours have resulted in 4 changes from the above list:
SAN JOSE $1,960,832 and WINNIPEG $1,388,811 both drop down a few notches in cap availability while TAMPA goes from being over the cap to a plus of $405,001. DALLAS is now $769,916 OVER with Benn’s $1,000,000 on LTIR to cover.
It’s like a perpetual motion machine!
The Dallas change came through the signing of another P.T.O. to have earned a deal – LW/RW Adam Erne i year @ at the ubiquitous rock-bottom $775,000
Can’t wait to see the next Bolts-Cats game.
Boston announcing retiring of Chara s number is a smoke screen to cover for the team if they have a horrific start.!
May be. But he earned that. He ushered in an era of big players who could actually play a real sport and were not relegated to round ball games.
If they really wanted to hide a bad season approaching they would have had him play a preseason game.
Agree.. this season is going to be tougher to watch than the 2nd half of last season …those HC who didn’t want the Bruins job knew exactly what they were doing
If they really wanted to hide that they would have changed their name to the Boston Sabres
This is an odd thread.
So retiring the # of former captain, cup winner and hall of fame player is a smokescreen? So don’t retire his #? Bit of a dick move if you don’t IMO.
Baseball isn’t a real sport? Seems like one to me and did when I played it. Go Jays!
The worse the B’s do this season, the better for the long term. IMO.
Stick tap chrisms! Once again, well played.
🙇♂️
Thanks!
Good for McDavid!! The Oilers doing a good job.
How can the players expect the teams to fill out the rest of the roster when now they are doubling their salaries from both ends: the ELC’s as well as UFA’s. They are doubling their salaries on “potential”. One of Lyle’s colleagues wrote a good article, his name escapes me, in hockey news alluding to how even the younger guys are asking for double? Anyways, dosen’t this trend make it doubly difficult for GM’s to fill out the remainder of the rosters going forward? Need some perspective on this? I believe the asks are unreasonable but don’t begrudge a guy from trying to get the most. Some common sense has to ultimately prevail though IMO!
Otherwise, excited for a new season. The Avalanche have a lot to prove IMO. Nevertheless, excited to see how it all shakes out. GO AVS!!!
do the Bruins think if they win hockey fights they can win games ? It’s all Sweeney and Neely talk about making it hard to play against the Bruins because of the B’s physical play … don’t get me wrong I like that style of play I couldn’t wait for the Big Bad Bruins to take the Ice back then but those teams also had goal scoring … this is going to be a long season for the Bruins … don’t see how Sweeney makes it thru it without getting fired
Joe what other team is hanging their hat on managements phrases like being tough to play against and we were an easy out!PLEASE! Neeley said they looked at scorers,what he failed to say is that offensive players Don t want to play with plumbers. Jeff Viel made the team,what a joke.
Ottawa sending Yakemchuk to the AHL in Belleville was the right move. They did it with Kleven a couple of seasons back and it did him a world of good to get the extra ice-time and learn at the pro level, and Yakemchuk will benefit the same way. RD Spence is slated to start off as the 7th D following strong camps by Ottawa native LD Donovan Sebrango and RD Nikolas Matinpalo.
This is the way their forward lines and defense pairings will start, unless both LD Tyler Kleven and RW Drake Batherson are ready to go on Thursday’s opener in Tampa:
Forwards
Tkachuk-Stutzle-Zetterlund
Perron-Cozens-Amadio
Greig-Pinto-Giroux
MacDermid-Eller-Cousins
Extra:
left-shot RW Olle Lycksell, who also earned a spot with his strong play in camp.
Defense
Sanderson-Zub
Chabot-Jensen
Sebrango-Matinpalo
Extra
Spence
Goalies
Ullmark & Merilainen
All 5 players placed on waivers Sunday cleared yesterday, including Arturs Kaliyev who also had a strong camp, and will likely be an early call-up.
Bobby Orr says “ouch”.
My first thought too. But Lyle did say “one of the best”. Doesn’t diminish Orr or Shore, merely elevates Chara…rightly so. Congrats Big Z
Chara bloomed in Boston and surely deserves the honour.
Smokescreen talk is just BS considering he was probably the MVP of the Bruins in the 2000’s.
As you likely know HF30, Jeff Gorton signed him as interim GM of the B’s. Along with some other moves that turned out to be very shrewd. He had one very productive off season in Boston, and probably deserved the GM job. Actually, not probably, he deserve it.
Chara has to be in the top 5 for best UFA signings of all time. He was a dominant D-man defensively. If you went into his corner with the puck, you weren’t coming out with it. Like ever.