The back-to-back champion Florida Panthers start their Stanley Cup three-peat bid without Matthew Tkachuk, Connor McDavid doesn’t have a contract beyond this season and nearly one-third of NHL teams have a new head coach.
Training camps open around the league this week with questions from Edmonton to South Florida, many of which will not be resolved by the time another banner is raised and the puck is dropped on opening night Oct. 7. It’s the final season at 82 games before expanding to 84, shortening camps and reducing exhibition play.
Also gone next year is mandatory fitness testing.
“Next year,” Carolina’s Seth Jarvis said. “I still got one more year.”
“Long overdue, Seattle captain Jordan Eberle quipped: “I wish that we did [away with] the fitness testing about 10 years ago.”
That’s all part of the next collective bargaining agreement, which maintains hockey’s fruitful era of labor peace until at least 2030. Without that looming over the sport, all 32 teams hit the ice for practice Thursday with dreams — however realistic — of playing all the way until June.
Tkachuk recovering from surgery
Tkachuk’s injury from the immensely popular 4 Nations Face-Off in February cost him the final couple of months of last season. He returned to help the Panthers win the Cup again, then had surgery to repair a sports hernia and torn adductor muscle.
“We anticipate him being out until December-ish, but don’t hold me to that,” general manager Bill Zito said. “That’s my internet medical degree.”
That is plenty of time for Tkachuk to be ready to play for the U.S. at the Olympics in Milan, Italy.
WATCH | Panthers beat Oilers in Game 6 to win back-to-back Stanley Cups:
A 5-1 game six victory gave Florida a 4-2 series win giving the Panthers back-to-back Stanley Cup champions.
McDavid says he wants to remain with Oilers
The Oilers have lost consecutive finals to Florida, keeping McDavid from hoisting the Cup for the first time. Hockey’s best player has said he wants to remain with the Oilers if he believed they could be a perennial contender and give him a chance to win it all.
They cannot prove that to McDavid until this spring, and it’s more than likely he puts pen to paper on a new deal before that time. Until that happens, there is reason to wonder what his future might hold.
McDavid isn’t the only star without a contract. Minnesota’s Kirill Kaprizov and Vegas’ Jack Eichel are among players who could be unrestricted free agents July 1 if their situations don’t change.
Ovechkin, 40, approaches 900 goals
Five or so months removed from breaking Wayne Gretzky’s career goals record, Alex Ovechkin reported to Washington Capitals camp Wednesday on his 40th birthday. He has 897 going into his final season under contract and what could be his last in the NHL.
Going into season 21, teammates see the same gap-toothed big kid playing the game he cherishes.
“If I didn’t know anything about hockey, I would have said ‘This guy, he just got here,”‘ Capitals centre Pierre-Luc Dubois said. “He shows up every day with a smile on his face, hungry, loves to talk hockey, do video — all those things.”
Life without Marner in Toronto
Craig Berube opened training camp Wednesday by telling reporters in Toronto he was excited not to hear about the “Core Four” anymore. Auston Matthews, John Tavares, Mitch Marner and William Nylander combined to win two playoff series in nine years together.
Marner, who ranked fifth in the league in scoring last season with 102 points, left Canada’s biggest market in a sign-and-trade to go to the Vegas Golden Knights.
“It’ll be a little weird, I think, just not seeing him in the locker room,” said forward Matthew Knies, who is taking Marner’s place as a core piece of the franchise. “Obviously, he was pretty loud-voiced, and he ran the music and he did a lot for us.”
WATCH | Can the Canadiens, the Leafs’ arch-rivals, meet high expecations?:
After years in a rebuild and on the heels of a surprise appearance in the playoffs last spring, the Habs head into the 2025-26 NHL season loaded up with raised expectations.
Sullivan steps in as Rangers’ coach
There were nine coaching changes during the of-season, including three-time Stanley Cup-winner Joel Quenneville returning from his NHL-imposed exile to join Anaheim. On the East Coast, Mike Sullivan replaces Peter Laviolette behind the bench for the New York Rangers.
Camp Sullivan is the start of the Rangers’ hope to get back into the playoffs.
“You only have like two weeks of training camp before your first game,” forward Will Cuylle said. “Just making you’re really dialled in and making sure we understand all the systems and stuff, so by game one we’re not dipping our foot in. We’re more ready to go.”
