After NHL.com rolled out its rankings of the league’s top 20 defensemen and wingers earlier this month, Sunday brought the next wave: the 10 best goaltenders heading into the 2026-27 regular season.
The list put Andrei Vasilevskiy, Connor Hellebuyck and Igor Shesterkin at the top. Spencer Knight, despite a strong first season as a No. 1 netminder in 2025-26, did not crack the top 10. Chicago will get a closer look at that omission later this week, with a follow-up coming from Chicago Hockey Now.
The Blackhawks also came up short in the earlier position rankings, with no player making the top 20 among defensemen or wingers. For a team trying to build momentum heading into the season, that absence is hard to miss.
Elsewhere around the league, Florida may have a forward opening to fill after Brad Marchand recently had surgery. That has opened the door to a possible run at Patrik Laine, who is still searching for a job. George Richards at Florida Hockey Now breaks down whether the Panthers should pursue him before training camp starts.
There was also fresh content for fight fans, with Sportsnet compiling the NHL’s best scraps from the 2025-26 season. The reel included the goalie fight between Sergei Bobrovsky and Alex Nedeljkovic, along with a few other heavyweight moments worth revisiting from a year when those kinds of tilts were a little harder to find.
And in Detroit, another rough summer note surfaced for a frustrated fanbase: a report claiming owner Chris Ilitch passed on a major chance to land Steven Stamkos a few summers ago because he didn’t think the scoring winger was worth the money.
On the Blackhawks side, there’s also the bigger-picture question of how Jeff Blashill will sort out his forward group once Connor Bedard is back from offseason shoulder surgery. Chicago Hockey Now took a look at how Bedard’s linemates could be arranged and where Anton Frondell, Frank Nazar and Roman Kantserov fit into the picture.
The Blackhawks’ social media accounts also shared a pair of quick clips on Sunday showing Patrick Kane and Artyom Levshunov scoring impressive goals at the United Center. With preseason action only one month away, it was the kind of tease that makes the wait feel a little shorter.
Colorado Hockey Now also weighed in on NHL.com’s goalie rankings, noting that even with what was arguably the league’s best goaltending tandem last season, neither Scott Wedgewood nor Mackenzie Blackwood made the top 10. Aarif Dean wrote that one of them stands out as an obvious omission.
In Other News...
Spencer Knight Has A Chance To Change The Blackhawks Conversation
A fresh round of league chatter has only sharpened the spotlight on Chicagos young goaltending picture, even as Patrick Kane heads toward another season loaded with milestone watch. The Blackhawks still have plenty of reasons to stay focused on their own rebuild, but the conversation around how quickly the roster can turn competitive keeps circling back to whether the team can get more reliable play in net as the foundation for everything else.
Spencer Knight sits right in the middle of that discussion, even if the wider NHL conversation hasnt caught up to him yet. The NHL Networks list of the top 10 current goaltenders left him off entirely, which is the sort of omission that can sting and motivate at the same time. For Chicago, it adds another layer to a season in which Knight has a chance to reshape how the rest of the league views both his game and the Blackhawks direction. [Read more 🡒]
Blackhawks Have Enough Talent Now The Pressure Is On
The Blackhawks have spent the rebuild phase collecting talent, and the conversation around the organization is starting to shift from patience to proof. With Patrick Kane back in the picture and Connor Bedard leading the next wave, the roster has the kind of star power that makes people around the league look twice, even as the team continues to sort through changes in special teams personnel and the rest of the supporting cast.
What comes next is less about whether the Blackhawks can add more pieces and more about when the whole thing has to start looking like a real team. The 2026-27 season is shaping up as the checkpoint, a year when progress will be measured against a Central Division that rarely gives anyone an easy path and against the expectation that playoff positioning should finally be in reach. [Read more 🡒]