NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – September 1, 2025
The latest on Bruins center Elias Lindholm, Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey, Canadiens blueliner Mike Matheson, and more in this Labor Day edition of the NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
DAILY FACEOFF: Elias Lindholm is determined to have a bounce-back performance following his disappointing 2024-25 performance with the Boston Bruins.
Lindholm signed with the Bruins last summer, but managed only 17 goals and 47 points as they missed the playoffs for the first time in eight years. The 30-year-old center blamed his poor start to a nagging back injury, which kept him out of training camp and hampered his performance.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: A healthy season could enable Lindholm to regain his solid two-way game. Improvement on his part could also help the Bruins stay in the hunt for a playoff berth this season.
WINNIPEG FREE PRESS: Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey recovered from the knee injury that sidelined him from last spring’s Stanley Cup Playoffs, taking his place last week with the other 44 invitees to Canada’s Olympic orientation camp in Calgary.
Winnipeg Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey (NHL Images).
Morrissey, 30, indicated that the injury wasn’t too severe. He’d also dealt with a similar injury to his other knee during the 2023 playoffs, so he already had a template on how to rehab and recover.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Morrissey played a key role in the Jets winning their first Presidents’ Trophy last season. The puck-moving blueliner was also part of Canada’s gold-medal team at the 4 Nations Face-Off in February, potentially giving him an inside track to secure a spot on Canada’s Olympic team.
RDS.CA: Montreal Canadiens defenseman Mike Matheson and New York Islanders winger Jonathan Drouin are among five players whose jerseys will be retired by the Lac St-Louis Lions of the Quebec U18 AAA Development League on Sept. 5.
Anaheim Ducks winger Alex Killorn, Islanders forward Anthony Duclair, and former San Jose Sharks defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic will also have their jerseys retired.
The five have each played at least 600 NHL games. Matheson, Drouin, and Duclair were teammates in 2010-11 with the Lions.
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: Jimmy Snuggerud is expected to be one of the young building blocks for the Blues.
The 21-year-old winger joined the club late last season, averaging 15:28 of regular-season ice time and finishing with four points in seven games.
In the playoffs, he logged over 17 minutes of ice time per game with two goals and two assists in seven games.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Snuggerud is one of the notable rookies worth watching this season. A strong performance on his part will improve the Blues’ chance of securing a playoff spot. It could also make him a contender for the Calder Memorial Trophy as NHL Rookie of the Year.
ESPN.COM: Greg Wyshynski recently listed the best NHL draft pick ever at every slot from No. 1 to 224.
Wyshynski had Pittsburgh Penguins great Mario Lemieux at No. 1, but acknowledged a trio of generational players (Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals, Sidney Crosby of the Penguins, and Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers) complicates the debate.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Lemieux remains the greatest first-overall pick of all time, but like Wyshynski, I acknowledge that a case can be made for the other three. Feel free to weigh in on that topic in the comments section below.
Even if Lindholm bounces back with a solid season Boston does not have nearly enough pop in the lineup. Sweeney signed more 4th line plumbers in the off-season to add to a lineup that is full of them. He s praying for a bounce back season out of Swayman and healthy campaigns out of Mcavoy and Hampus Lindholm.Looks like the formula is to win 2-1 every night.
He pretty much signed very bumper and grinder available. Bruins will look pretty 80’s this year. But they will have alotta hits.
Lindholm will bounce back to what?
Calgary saw his decline and traded him away.
Vancouver didn’t see it and gave up assets to get him and even they didn’t keep him.
Bruins jumped on him, signed him based on past performance and are stuck with him, 30y/o and 6 more years at $7.75m
I remember distinctly saying that the Bruins should go after Monahan not Lindholm at the time.
Maybe they did but he’s signed for 4 more years at $5.5m in Columbus.
Habfan30 said the same thing about your boy Newhook.He and Middlestadt are similar both very soft.
Sr,
Oddly enough Newhook is 5’11 200lb and a speed burner who people assume is a perimeter player but he isn’t.
He’s usually in high danger areas, slot and crease are where his goals come from.
He happens to have 3 times more hits than Middlestadt, they are both very different players. Then again Newhook costs half of what Middlestadt does.
Sr: Newhook is 24 and has not yet met expectations, thus disappointing so far; that is not the same as being in decline.
Then you muddle things further by bringing “soft” into the conversation. On what basis do you say that and what do you think his expected role is, to be an enforcer?
Rhetorical questions, by the way.
Habfan30 You know that Monahan was going to Columbus to play with his best friend Johnny Gaudreau. Boston was stuck with Middlestadt to make the Coyle trade go through. Boston really wanted the prospect Zeller and the draft pick but they had to take Middlestadt contract with it.
Sr,
Had Monahan been offered what Lindholm got you don’t think he’d have signed in Boston?
7x$7.75 is more than 5x$5.5
I doubt he leaves $2.25m for more term on the table to go play with Gaudreau, who left him behind in Calgary.
Lindholm was the shiny object though the writing was on the wall.
As for Mittelstadt, that’s a different thing entirely, a move to get younger that will probably pay off over time.
Zeller has scored at every level he’s played at.
Pettersson, LD prospect too early to say anything about him.
The basic question when it comes to assessing Boston’s chances of getting back to the playoffs goes way beyond just having Lindholm turning in a “bounce-back” type season. I say that because nothing they’ve done roster-wise since last season’s 76 points (that tied them for last with Philadelphia in the Conference) points to their ability to leap over 7 teams just to get to the last WC spot.
That would require all 7 teams cooperating by having worse seasons than Boston: Buffalo (79), Pittsburgh (80), NYI (82), NYR (85), Detroit (86), Columbus (89), Montreal (91). And several in that group have either made better moves to improve, or have considerably more cap space to do so as the season progresses, than does Sweeney.
Like Pittsburgh, for Boston this could well be the start of a long playoff drought as recently experienced by Ottawa and currently frustrating Detroit.
Yeah, that’s the way I see it too George.
And at the top of the pile I can’t think of a team that has closed the gap on the Panthers either.
But as you infer, the Cup isn’t handed out on September 01.
Yet, anyways, until the NHL finishes expanding.
GeorgeO Sweeney and Neeley wants ownership to think it’s a retool,but it’s obvious to me with that personel its rebuild.
If ownership thinks that that collection can rebound 8 positions – and maybe 9 since the Flyers are improved as well – through a re-tool, then they’re the tools.
mario gets my vote!!!
Mine as well. McDavid gets a lot of consideration, but for my money the all-time top 3 are Gretzky (not drafted), Lemieux, and Orr (also not drafted).
Happy to have seen all three in their prime.
I would agree in my lifetime! Howe too but I was too young to appreciate him?
LJ,
Here is a link to a site where you can evaluate, compare players if you lean to analytics, I think it would interest others too.
i often check it when I dream up trade proposals as a counter to my eye-test.
George,
I think you’d get a kick out of it, I don’t know why i never mentioned it before.
There are interesting breakdowns such as 5 on 5 , pp, pk, regular season, playoffs, zone by zone play, etc, a lot of breakdown of individual plyers, head to head comparison etc.
https://www.naturalstattrick.com/#
Hope it’s ok Lyle
Great link – thanks habfan30. And I think I read somewhere that yesterday would have been the 94th for Le Gros Bill.
On ANY list one of the all-time greats.
I should have added, for those unfamiliar with analytics and what the numbers represent, it’s easy to get lost and overwhelmed.
https://www.naturalstattrick.com/glossary.php?teams
It’s worth taking the time to mess around and get comfortable looking around, rather impressive how much of the game is broken down by numbers , though I admit being biased towards eye test.