NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – April 16, 2026
The Golden Knights will face the Mammoth in the first round, Blue Jackets players respond to their coach’s criticism, the Blackhawks re-sign GM Kyle Davidson, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
RECAPS OF WEDNESDAY’S GAMES
NHL.COM: The Vegas Golden Knights clinched the Pacific Division title by defeating the Seattle Kraken 4-1. Reilly Smith scored twice for the 39-26-17 Golden Knights, who hold first place in the division with 95 points. Shane Wright scored for the Kraken.
Vegas Golden Knights winger Mitch Marner (NHL Images).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Golden Knights will face the Utah Mammoth in the opening round of the upcoming Stanley Cup Playoffs. Golden Knights winger Mitch Marner scored to reach the 80-point plateau for the fifth consecutive season.
The Ottawa Senators finished the regular season with a 3-1 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs. Claude Giroux collected two assists for the playoff-bound Senators, who will face the Carolina Hurricanes in the first round. William Nylander scored his 30th goal of the season for the Maple Leafs.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: With this season-ending loss, the Maple Leafs finish 28th in the overall standings, putting them in the top five for the NHL Draft Lottery on May 5. They had traded their 2026 first-round pick to the Boston Bruins last season, but it was top-five protected, meaning they should retain it.
However, the Leafs aren’t out of the woods yet. If a non-playoff team higher than them in the standings wins the lottery, they move up a maximum of 10 spots, which would knock the Leafs out of the top five, sending that pick to the Bruins. The exception is the Washington Capitals, who would move up into the sixth spot.
A shootout goal by Wyatt Johnston lifted the Dallas Stars over the Buffalo Sabres 4-3. Esa Lindell had a goal and an assist for the Stars, who will face the Minnesota Wild in the upcoming playoffs. Zach Benson had a goal and an assist for the Sabres, who meet the Boston Bruins in the first round.
New York Rangers forward Tye Kartye tallied twice to double up the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-2. Oliver Bjorkstrand and Corey Perry scored for the Lightning, who meet the Montreal Canadiens in their first-round playoff series.
Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Louis Crevier scored two goals as his club overcame a 2-0 deficit for a 5-2 win over the San Jose Sharks. Kiefer Sherwood picked up two assists for the Sharks.
The Florida Panthers crushed the Detroit Red Wings 8-1. Luke Kunin and Mike Benning each scored twice for the Panthers. Justin Faulk replied for the Red Wings.
HEADLINES
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH: Blue Jackets players pushed back against interim head coach Rick Bowness’ rant about them not caring enough following their season-ending loss to the Washington Capitals.
Zach Werenski, Sean Monahan, and Adam Fantilli appreciated Bowness’ frustration and emotion in the heat of the moment, but they disagreed with his assessment that they didn’t care and were comfortable with losing.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Whether Bowness returns as head coach or not, he wasn’t wrong about the lack of effort by the Blue Jackets over their final 13 games of this season.
The Jackets rose from last place in the Eastern Conference at the time of Bowness’ hiring in mid-January to second in the Metropolitan Division by March 25, only to go 3-9-1 to finish outside the postseason picture.
It’s now up to general manager Don Waddell to assess his roster and make some changes to address what Bowness believes is a culture of losing.
CHICAGO HOCKEY NOW: The Blackhawks signed general manager Kyle Davidson to a multi-year contract extension.
Hired in 2022, Davidson has been attempting to rebuild the roster around young talent such as Connor Bedar, Frank Nazar, and Anton Frondell, but there’s some frustration among Blackhawks fans over the pace of the rebuilding process.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Under Davidson, the Blackhawks have a well-stocked prospect pool, recently ranked by The Athletic as the best in the league. However, those efforts have not resulted in any significant improvement for this rebuilding club, which is starting to test the fans’ patience.
TSN: New York Islanders defenseman Matthew Schaefer said he’s open to playing for Canada in the 2026 IIHF World Championships next month in Switzerland. Schaefer’s Islanders were eliminated from the NHL postseason race. The 18-year-old blueliner is considered the favorite to win the Calder Memorial Trophy as NHL Rookie of the Year.
SPORTSNET: Edmonton Oilers winger Zach Hyman will return to the lineup for their final regular-season game against the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday. He missed the last five games with an undisclosed injury. The Oilers clinched a playoff berth earlier this week.
TORONTO SUN: Lance Hornby weighed in on an article by The Athletic on the collapse of the Maple Leafs, in which it revealed how much involvement Keith Pelley, the CEO of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, had in the club’s pre-trade deadline meetings.
During those meetings, Pelley was reportedly “armed with in-house AI figures on possible deals and offering strong opinions.” Hornby believes that will raise questions about how much autonomy the next Leafs general manager will have under Pelley.
The story also raises questions about how much AI will influence the Maple Leafs’ roster decisions, and how much other NHL front offices are using AI to build and maintain their teams.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Pelley indicated that the next Maple Leafs GM must be “data-driven”, which had fans and pundits automatically assuming he was referring to analytics. There’s no doubt analytics will be a big part of it, but AI will likely also play a significant role.
Whether it will reverse the Leafs’ fortunes this summer, and in the long term, remains to be seen. Like analytics, AI could be a useful tool, but it shouldn’t be the primary one for building and maintaining a competitive team.
NESN: Boston Bruins forward Fraser Minten won the NESN 7th Player Award. It is an annual award to the club’s unsung hero, as voted by Bruins fans.
George and Keith Pelley using AI to assess hockey markets and players! Who would have thought!😯
Heh. I don’t use it to assess anything Johnny z. But I do use it to show the facts and consensus analyst positions as they exist … it’s up to individuals as to how to “assess the details.”
However, I may agree – or even disagree – with the findings in certain cases depending upon underlying circumstances.
Hey glad Kyle cleared up the draft situation I watched that game lastnight leafs just seem to have lost the will to win kind of akin to NJ.
The bs still have a small chance to get that high pick. Boy if you can’t get excited for this weekend this is what it’s all about. I’d be happy if the bruins can take this to six or 7 games but I feel this is one of the teams the bruins have a chance to beat hope they can split the wins in Buffalo.
Sabres’ players are entering unknown territory.
While that’s true, Toronto St Pats (Ottawa last year is a good example), there is precedence for doing well after long playoff droughts:
in 2003 Anaheim entered the playoffs after 6 straight absences and went to the Cup finals;
in 2019 Carolina, after missing 9 straight times, reached the Conference finals.
maybe the Leafs can replace Matthews, Nylander and Tavares with Claude, ChatGPT and Alexa, and see how many more wins the team can get.
Pelley can purchase a robot to stand behind the bench.
surely the would appeal to all Leafs fans, no?
Interesting thought mikep, but a little flawed………Alexa plays goal, and the Leafs already have a very crowded crease. 😉
they can sign Grok on to be their “enforcer”
🙂
Bruins … calling it now .. two UFA signings this offseason
Jacob Trouba $ Alex Tuch
Bruins .. two UFA signing needs in the offseason
Jacob Trouba & Alex Tuch .. they should have plenty of cap to get this done
I think Trouba will resign will the Ducks. has actually looked like he enjoyed playing again this year.
We should be in for a fantastic night of games.
Oilers Ducks and Kings will be doing their best to avoid a match up vs the Avs…and you have to think, last game of the year that the Canucks, Preds and Flames will be looking to play spoiler.
Mcdavid has locked down the art ross…I’d like to see him get 2 for 50 goals…but i would be happier if Podkolzin nabs one for his first 20 goal season. Of course the win is most important. But as nice to haves, that would be nice.
Read a column today about Detroit’s slide from “in the playoffs” to “out of the playoffs” again and the coach’s comments were pretty well identical to those coming out of Columbus.
Could be quite an offseason.
What teams tops your most surprising disappointment this year… lots to choose from. You can pick the Jackets, started slow, caved, then after a coaching change surged to only collapse again?
Or Winnipeg, from being the top team in the league to missing the playoffs and really never getting their footing?
Or could you look at Detroit. Finally looking like the team they should be only to trip over themselves when games got harder to win – perhaps not built correctly?
I don’t think anyone expected the Panthers after three consecutive cup finals to be completely out of the playoffs, however they did have many injuries helping them collapse…you can say the same for a few other teams like the Devils but in NJ’s case, it seems a bit more than just missing some key guys.
For me, the only surprise I had when it comes to the Leafs is not so such missing the playoffs – as the numbers last season pointed at how unsustainable their play was, but actually finishing bottom five after a 100pt season and being tops in the east.
This has been one crazy season and for fans that have teams going in for the real season, enjoy….while you can.
I do not see how Rick Bowness can come back to the Jackets after his rant. The truth hurts sometime.
Well, HEEEEEEE’S BAAAAAAACK!!!!!!!!!!😉
Bownes was extended today!
Every team gives out awards to their players at the end of the year so I was surprised to read about an obscure award given out by one club? Does it have special significance that we should be aware of?
I think it was just to add a little salt to the wound of Leaf fans. Giving up their 1st was pain enough for a player that didn’t move the needle for them. But seeing Minten flourish with the B’s this year makes it much worse.
Thanks for the context.
AI Harrold Ballard. Type in a question, Harrold answers back. Fire all the pudgy women! Make a kid’s parents pay a thousand bucks to swing a flag!
If this isn’t funny.. it’s because it’s not funny.