The Bruins are still a few weeks from real hockey, but there’s already one bit of good news on the prospect front. Matvei Kotkov, Boston’s fourth-round pick this summer, opened his season in the KHL with Lokomotiv Yaroslavl and needed only one shot in his first game to score.
Around the league, the expansion chatter out of Atlanta got ahead of itself. Sportsnet had reported that an Atlanta group’s bid was in the final stages, but Vernon Krause said the NHL has not made a decision on the project.
He called those reports “premature and incomplete.” The Krause group also put out a statement on the matter, referencing the same “premature and incomplete” reporting about potential NHL expansion to The Gathering at South Forsyth.
There’s also uncertainty surrounding two familiar names at Sportsnet. Elliotte Friedman is without a contract after Sportsnet let him and Kevin Bieksa go on August 31, and now Amazon appears to be out of the mix. Bieksa has explored chances to work in America, while losing Friedman “would be a massive loss” for Sportsnet.
Elsewhere, Quinn Hughes has popped back into the rumor mill. NHLTradeRumors.me floated the idea of whether Hughes would want to face his brothers as a division rival, and pointed to the Philadelphia Flyers’ attempt to land Leo Carlsson along with Hughes’ relationship with Rick Tocchet as reasons not to dismiss Philly.
New Jersey Hockey Now reported that the Devils moved a fourth-round pick to Detroit in June to get Amadeus Lombardi, and Sunny Mehta quickly backed that up with a two-year deal. The bet there is that the 22-year-old can be “much more than depth.”
On the Penguins side, Pittsburgh Hockey Now took a swing at building the perfect Penguins player, with Dan Kingerski doing it from the current roster and noting the obvious answer: Mario Lemieux.
And in Vancouver, the Canucks got Zeev Buium signed just before the buzzer, landing him on an eight-year deal. The Athletic’s Harman Dayal and Corey Pronman graded the extension with the September 15 deadline looming and the market moving fast.
In Other News...
Bruins May Have Found A Draft Sleeper Worth Watching Closely
Matvei Kotkov is already giving the Bruins something to track after their 2026 third-round pick opened his professional career with a goal in his first Kontinental Hockey League game for Yaroslavl Lokomotiv. The Russian forward, taken 104th overall, arrived with some buzz after a strong MHL season that included playoff success and postseason MVP honors, and his early jump to the KHL only adds to the intrigue around a player Boston clearly believes has more upside than his draft slot suggests.
Kotkovs profile has the kind of traits that tend to translate if everything comes together, with evaluators pointing to his shot and his speed as the obvious selling points. The question is whether the rest of his game will catch up quickly enough, because the same reports that praise his skill also note the areas he still has to clean up as a pro, especially when the game gets heavier along the walls and the physical battles start to matter more. [Read more 🡒]
Bruins Prospect Matvei Kotkov Just Flashed Why Hes Worth Watching
Matvei Kotkov is starting to give the Bruins something to track beyond draft-night optimism. The Boston prospect, picked in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft, has already shown well in junior competition and at Bruins Developmental Camp, and now he is beginning to translate that promise into pro production with Lokomotiv Yaroslavl in the KHL.
For a fourth-round pick, every small step matters, especially when it comes in a league that can test young players against older competition every night. Kotkovs first goal of the season is the kind of early marker Bruins fans and development staff will keep circling, because it offers another reminder that there may be more upside here than his draft slot suggested. [Read more 🡒]
Bruins Prospects In College Suddenly Matter More Than Fans Realize
The Bruins college pipeline is starting to look more important than a simple long-term project, especially with several prospects now in key development spots for the 2026-27 season. Will Moore is back at Boston College after a freshman year that showed flashes of why Boston invested a second-round pick in him, Ryan Walsh continues his run at Cornell, and Cooper Simpson has arrived at North Dakota with the kind of offensive rsum that made him one of the more intriguing young names in the system.
For Bruins fans, the appeal is in how different these paths are and how much each one could matter down the road. Moore is still learning to translate his skill against older competition, Walsh is grinding through the Ivy League route, and Simpson brings a scorers pedigree from the USHL that could give Boston a more dangerous option if his college game keeps moving in the right direction. The Bruins do not need these players to be finished products yet, but the fact that they are all in meaningful college roles makes their progress worth following closely. [Read more 🡒]