Three Teams That Missed The Playoff Last Season That Will Make The Playoffs Next Year
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17 minutes ago
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Ready To Break Out: Pacific Division
By Brian Costello, features writer New seasons provide new opportunities, which create avenues for players to break out. The 2025-26 season will be no different, and in this article, The Hockey News take a look at the strongest candidates to make a name for themselves or ascend into stardom on the Pacific Division teams. It's understandable when a 20-year-old stumbles a bit out of the starting gate. That happened to Cutter Gauthier this season. Picked fifth overall (by Philadelphia) in 2022, Gauthier didn't score a goal until his 16th game last season and didn't get an assist until his sixth. But as the season wore on, Gauthier ramped things up. He had five goals and 18 points in his first 41 games, then 15 goals and 26 points in the next 41. Next season? Prorate his second half, and you get 30 goals and 52 points. That's a breakout. Connor Zary didn't have the breakout season many expected of him in 2024-25. The expectation was he'd continue to blossom from an impressive rookie season in 2023-24 and almost certainly establish himself as a 20-goal, 50-point top-six regular. But a pair of debilitating injuries knocked the 23-year-old out of the lineup for 28 games and hindered his growth. The Flames are committed to his development and will deploy him on the power play and near the top of the lineup. He will likely top 50 points. The Oilers have such a veteran lineup that it's often the younger players who draw the short straw when games become clutch. Such is the case with 24-year-old Vasily Podkolzin. The 10th pick overall in 2019 (by Vancouver) has more than 200 NHL games under his belt and had a decent first season with the Oilers, generating 24 points and averaging 13:13 of ice time per game. That dropped to around 11 minutes in the playoffs, but as Edmonton's roster turns over, Podkolzin will get more plum assignments. If defenseman Brandt Clakre can have the type of breakout season that he had to start 2024-25, the Kings would be ecstatic. The eighth-overall pick in 2021 won a starting job in the top four after Drew Doughty got injured in the pre-season. Clarke, now 22, put up 12 points (five on the power play) in his first 13 games and looked to have immediately earned his stripes. But after hitting a rough patch in November, Clarke settled back into a third-pairing role even through the playoffs. He will bounce back. The Sharks picked up their goalie of the future last summer when they acquired 2020 first-rounder Yaroslav Askarov from Nashville. One of the five stoppers to see time in the Sharks crease this season, Askarov won four of 12 starts but spent most of the season in the AHL refining his game and posting a .923 save percentage. Make no mistake, the 23-year-old Russian will be a full-time Shark this season and start anywhere from 30 to 50 games depending upon which veteran San Jose signs as a summer free agent. Is it possible for the same player to have two breakout seasons a few years apart? We'll soon find out if our instincts about Matty Beniers prove correct. The second-overall pick in 2021 truly did have a breakout campaign as a 20-year-old rookie in 2022-23, scoring 24 goals and 57 points and winning the Calder Trophy. After back-to-back disappointing seasons of just 37 and 43 points, there's hope Beniers can recapture his freshman form and lead the Kraken offensively. Could be that 60 points are in his future. After arriving from the New York Rangers in the January trade that sent J.T. Miller to Broadway, Filip Chytil scored in his first game with the Canucks. In his next 14 games before going down with a concussion that ended his season, Chytil scored just one more goal but showed plenty of offensive promise centering the third line. The No.21 pick in the 2017 draft is still just 25 and will be given every opportunity to push the boundaries of his 22 goals and 45 points, which were career-highs from 2022-23. Keegan Kolesar and Nicolas Roy were two big reasons why Vegas had the league's best fourth line last season. The dynamic duo combined for 27 goals and 61 points playing with depth wingers such as Tanner Pearson, Alexander Holtz, Victor Olofsson and Cole Schwindt. Kolesar is a strong candidate to move up the lineup due to Vegas' long list of pending UFAs this summer. Kolesar is aggressive, assertive in the corners and has a strong shot. This article appeared in our 2025 Champions issue. Our cover story focuses on the 2025 Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, specifically the elite play of defenseman Seth Jones, along with a recap of each game of the Cup final. We also include features on Sharks center Will Smith and Kraken defenseman Ryker Evans. In addition, we give our list of the top 10 moments from the 2024-25 NHL season. You can get it in print for free when you subscribe to The Hockey News at today. All subscriptions include complete access to more than 76 years of articles at The Hockey News Archive.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Utah Mammoth in yet another trademark fight over its name change, this time with a hockey bag company
For the second time this year, the NHL team in Utah is facing trademark objections from a pre-existing company over its new name. First, it was the company behind Yeti coolers refusing to back down so the team could adopt its preferred Utah Yeti name. Now, the recently christened Utah Mammoth are facing similar objections from a hockey bag company. Per Deseret News, Mammoth Hockey, an Oregon-based company that has sold hockey bags since 2014, recently sent the NHL team a cease-and-desist letter requesting it stop using the name, turn over all unsold merchandise bearing the new brand and provide copies of its accounting. Both companies feature a mammoth in their logos. Smith Entertainment Group reportedly responded with a lawsuit stating it was the sole owner of all trademarks related to the name, which Mammoth Hockey has vowed to fight: 'Mammoth Hockey intends to vigorously defend the litigation recently commenced against it by Utah Mammoth of the National Hockey League and protect its longstanding trademark used in connection with the hockey goods it has manufactured and sold for the past 10 years,' said Erik Olson, co-founder of Mammoth Hockey. While Mammoth Hockey has existed for more than a decade, the News reports it does not maintain any active trademarks at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, making any claim against the NHL team based on common law, a more uphill battle than a granted trademark. This was why the Yeti name fell through for the Mammoth, as the USPTO rejected its trademark attempt due to a "likelihood of confusion" with pre-existing trademarks. Different companies can feature a similar name if they're in clearly different fields (e.g. Dove beauty products and Dove chocolate), but the Yeti cooler company sold certain products, such as its apparel line, that could be impacted by an NHL team's products. SEG also reportedly noted a 2024 Facebook post and a 2025 series of LinkedIn messages and emails in which Mammoth Hockey seemingly showed support for the Utah Mammoth name choice. The Mammoth are requesting a decision in federal court on their use of the name, via the News: 'Utah Mammoth and the NHL believe strongly that we have the right to use the name Utah Mammoth under federal and state law, and that our use will not harm the defendant or its business in any way. We have taken this action only after careful consideration based on the defendant's position. We are not able to comment further on ongoing legal matters,' the Utah Mammoth said in a statement to the Deseret News. A second trademark fight is only the latest twist in a bizarrely protracted naming saga. The team formerly known as the Arizona Coyotes moved to Salt Lake City after Ryan Smith's purchase of the team and played its first season there with the temporary Utah Hockey Club nickname. It held three different round of voting featuring 21 different possible names, including the incumbent Hockey Club, before finally landing on the Mammoth.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Mitch Marner spotted hanging out with former Maple Leafs teammates
Mitch Marner still has time for some old buds, it seems. The former Toronto Maple Leafs all-star shared some snaps on his Instagram account of some fun summer hangouts with friends made during his time in Toronto. Marner, who was born and raised in Toronto, posted a carousel of photos of himself with wife Stephanie and their newborn son, Miles, along with a couple of former teammates up at a cottage and on the golf course. Marner is seen relaxing with Joe Thornton and chilling in the pool with Zach Bogosian and his children. Marner, Thornton and Bogosian — who currently plays for the Minnesota Wild – all suited up for the Leafs during the 2020-21 season, with the trio apparently becoming close friends. Leafs fans – many of whom have been famously known to be fickle – had mixed feelings about the snaps. Marner, who spent the first nine years of his NHL career with the Leafs, left the team this off-season and signed a massive eight-year, US$96-million contract with the Vegas Golden Knights. During his time with Toronto, Marner racked up 221 goals and 520 assists for 741 points over 657 regular-season games, but often was the biggest target for criticism over the franchise's repeated post-season failures. 'Take that Bearwear sweater off. Banned from Muskoka. Head down to Lake Tahoe,' one user commented on Marner's post. 'This is like when ur ex drops a summer dump with all new friends and ur like woo, dodged a bullet,' another wrote. 'A lot of golf pics for not having time to have a 1 day charity golf tourney,' a third commented, referring to Marner cancelling his annual event this summer in the midst of his departure from the team. Marner's remaining fans in Toronto should have Jan. 23, 2026, circled on their calendar, though. That's the date the star comes to town for his lone visit of the 2025-26 season with the Golden Knights. Toronto Maple Leafs sign depth defenceman to new contract Maple Leafs' William Nylander named Sweden's hockey player of the year The star winger had shared a heartfelt post after leaving the team for Vegas, thanking the fan base and the organization for his time with the Leafs. 'Now that my time in Toronto has come to an end, I wanted to share what these last nine years have meant to me,' Marner wrote. 'Leaving isn't easy. This city is where I grew up, where I fell in love with hockey, and where I've had the incredible honour of living out my childhood dream. Wearing the Maple Leaf on my chest wasn't just about playing for a team, it was about representing my home.' 'When I was drafted, all I wanted was to help bring a Stanley Cup to Toronto,' Marner said. 'That was always the goal, and I came up short. I know how much this team means to this city, and I know the expectations that come with wearing this jersey. 'I gave everything I had, but in the end, it wasn't enough. That's hard to admit, because I wanted it so badly, for all of us.'
