NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – November 28, 2025
A 15-game schedule for Friday, evaluations of the 32 teams, the latest on the attempted sale of the Penguins, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
NHL.COM: The return of Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk from injury and the Colorado Avalanche’s pursuit of their 11th straight win highlight Friday’s 15-game schedule.
Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk (NHL Images).
Tkachuk has been sidelined since Oct. 16 following surgery to repair torn ligaments in his right thumb. He’s making his return in his hometown of St. Louis against the Blues.
The Avalanche sit atop the overall standings with a record of 17-1-5 (39 points). They have an opportunity to win 11 straight games for the second time in franchise history. Center Nathan MacKinnon leads all NHL scorers with 18 goals and 39 points, while defenseman Cale Makar leads all defensemen with 30 points.
Meanwhile, the “Black Friday” tradition continues as the Boston Bruins host the New York Rangers. In California, the Anaheim Ducks host the Los Angeles Kings as the two rivals jockey for first place in the Pacific Division.
CNBC: Michael Ozanian made his annual evaluation of all 32 NHL franchises.
The Toronto Maple Leafs once again top the list at $4.30 billion, followed by the New York Rangers ($3.8 billion), Montreal Canadiens ($3.4 billion), Los Angeles Kings ($3.15 billion), and Edmonton Oilers ($3.1 billion).
The Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks, Philadelphia Flyers, Washington Capitals, and Detroit Red Wings round out the top 10 franchises.
The Columbus Blue Jackets ranked 32nd ($1.4 billion), with the Buffalo Sabres at 31 ($1.42 billion), the Ottawa Senators at 30 ($1.44 billion), the Winnipeg Jets at 29 ($1.46 billion), and the San Jose Sharks at 28 ($1.55 billion).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Being in two of the NHL’s smallest markets partly accounts for the Senators and Jets’ placement. The Blues Jackets and Sharks have been rebuilding in recent years, while the Sabres have missed the playoffs for a league-record 14 years.
PITTSBURGH HOCKEY NOW: There are conflicting reports regarding the sale of the Penguins.
Pittsburgh sports radio host Mark Madden claimed the attempt by current owner Fenway Sports Group to sell the team to the Hoffman Group was off. However, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that the negotiations remain more difficult than expected, but the Hoffman Group remains within its exclusive negotiating window and is moving forward.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: As Friedman said, “We will see.”
TSN: Edmonton Oilers winger Kasperi Kapanen appeared to suffer an injury during practice on Thursday. He has been sidelined since Oct. 19 with an undisclosed injury and only recently rejoined his teammates in practice.
EDMONTON JOURNAL: Speaking of the Oilers, winger Jack Roslovic is questionable for Saturday’s game against the Seattle Kraken after blocking a shot during Tuesday’s loss to the Dallas Stars.
MONTREAL HOCKEY NOW: The Canadiens reclaimed forward Sammy Blais off waivers from the Toronto Maple Leafs and sent him to their AHL affiliate in Laval.
Good luck to the Hoffman group in buying the Penguins. Poor John Henry with a report that he is worth 5.7 billion will be looking for the best deal. He must be getting tired of owning sports affiliated businesses such as the Boston Red Sox,Fenway Sports Group and the Liverpool Football Club.
One thing that team “evaluation” demonstrates clearly is that, being ranked at or near the top doesn’t translate into success on the ice. 🙂
So, in the end the basic reaction is “so what?”
Well, for one thing, George, it would set the fee for potential expansion franchises. It also helps set the value for a potential sale of an existing franchise. Those valuations are also indicators of which clubs would have an easier time of spending to the cap ceiling each season.
Hmmm…….🤔
“So there!” 😉
Heh. I guess I’ve been “put in my place quite succinctly. But although I do understand all that reasoning, having an “easier time of spending to the cap” can – and is often – countered by willingness/ability to do so by deep-pocket owners in the smaller markets.
With the exception of Columbus who currently have a cap reserve of $16,767,037 and a projected one of $12,225,957, here’s how the “bottom 5” compare in that regard to the top 5:
first total current – second total projected – according to Puckpedia
Bottom 4
Buffalo – $2,681,920 – $1,855,202
Ottawa – $3,134,663 – $2,800,000
Winnipeg – $4,103,333 – $2,992,014
San Jose – $5,985,833 – $2,673,948 OVER
Top 5
Toronto – $303,847 – $285,201
NY Rangers – $43,866 – $433,822 OVER
Montreal – $3,592,188 – $2.619,304
Los Angeles – $3,845.939 – $2,893,966
Edmonton – $139,167 – $2,-40,136 OVER
Yes, the Leafs, Rangers and Oilers are smack up against the limit – and two of them eventually over – but their disregard of the wisdom of allowing for “wiggle room” also makes trades to improve somewhat problematic in that any deal almost has to involve equal cap going in and out.
Or am I out to lunch there as well? – lol
I find that these evaluations are another crappy way of writing about the sport without adding much value. The evaluations have zero to do with how the team performs or its success on the ice…where it only matters most to us fans.
Great for the marketing teams of the Leafs, Rangers and Habs for building a brand that has mass appeal regardless of the results. And all teams worth over a billion is great for the shareholders or owners but really means jack squat for us fans who have to suffer watching a watered down product, unable to build or sustain a winning team due to a hard cap, and are constantly barraged with hype and speculation including betting odds disguised as hockey reportage.
We are at a watershed moment where the desire to capitalize and make big financial gains is beginning to hurt the product.
I will try to counter that argument fellas. Valuations matter as they are a measuring stick.
The Oilers have the highest revenue in the entire league, yes more than TOR or NYR. A city of whose greater area is only 1.5 million. Kinda amazing when you think about it.
It isn’t because they haven’t played well, it is because of the opposite.
When revenue goes up, and your fixed costs obviously stay fixed, your operating costs as a % of revenue go down, EBITA goes up. Valuation goes up.
The Oilers EBITA is 43.6% of revenue; that is an incredibly profitable business. What that tells you, because the Oilers sold out even when they sucked, is that people are paying more to go to games and more people are watching whether it is streaming, cable or whatever. Even though Oiler fans are as loyal as they come, that was not happening during the “Decade of Darkness”.
To think that the Oilers winning had nothing to do with them being the top revenue team in the NHL doesn’t make sense to me. Their valuation reflects that.
Interesting points as usual Ray but I still don’t see evaluations as a clear indicator of on ice success or prowess.
I think you hit it on the head with your description of fan bases in certain markets: Loyal (I think of it as rabid) and in business, a loyal fan is a forever customer. When the teams do well, you’ll see a boost due to fair weather fans jumping on the bandwagon and a dip when the product is bad. Building the loyal fan base will insure a baseline and slow for profitability throughout the team’s cycles.
Ray certainly the new building, new owner, and some of the best players in the league have to do with some of that success you described in Edmonton??
I wonder if Ottawa and it’s new owner look at the new building effect and it’s locked up core and think “ya..we can do that too” with a fancy new building down town.
I’m one of the few that thinks a down town building will ultimately be a white elephant ghost town just like Landsdown is. And yes…IT IS when there isn’t a football game on. Landsdown 1.0 has year over year been in the red…and now they’ll double down with 2nd tier project at the same location with the city on the hook for much more this time. Watch closely Michael Andlauer. Ottawa is fickle. This is what we do here.
I personally would move quickly and call Public Works who are actively selling government property. (not the NCC) and try and buy the old RCMP HQ at Vanier. It’s central. Right on the main highway hub and right along a corridor where you could divert the train right through it. Plenty of land for the building, parking all of it. The East end people who’ve complained for years would be happy. The west end folks would grumble less about the new location. Gatineau who do matter wouldn’t be far either.
Absolutely Dark G, both the players and arena have helped huge. I didn’t bring up the arena as it opened in 2016 so baked into the previous and current #’s.
The Edmonton arena deal was a little different than most as the city secured a commitment for further downtown development, including offices and residential high rise, which Katz did. And they recently just agreed to more of the same a few months ago. And it worked, downtown is way more vibrant and busy with more businesses thriving. Hotels, bars, restaurants, shops etc.
OTT/GAT is about the same population as greater Edmonton. Not sure if the same downtown plan would work there, I was somewhat skeptical it would work here. But it did.
Might have even finished on budget and on time, which isn’t the norm.
I didn’t realize how close Gatineau is to Ottawa, so ya, they do matter.