The Toronto Maple Leafs are suddenly dealing with a lot more noise than they wanted after Gavin McKenna barely saw the ice in a 5-4 overtime loss to the Buffalo Sabres.
McKenna logged just 6:36, then disappeared from the game after roughly the midway point of the second period. Penalties and a long spell on the bench played into that decision, but the optics were still rough enough to put coach Jim Hiller in the spotlight. Hiller owned it afterward, saying he should have found a way to get the rookie back into the action in the third period.
Auston Matthews stepped in to back his teammate, suggesting the experience could light a fire under McKenna going forward. Still, the reaction outside the locker room quickly turned sharp.
Jackie Redmond questioned whether Hiller had lost control of his bench, and Sportsnet’s Jusin Bourne wrote, “I’ll write more on it I think, but Hiller’s quotes on McKenna seem like a coach trying to both set the standard with the kid, and wear the heat in public rather than McKenna having to answer for it? Otherwise, yeah, it’s all extremely odd.”
Bourne later rewatched the game and said he tended to agree with Redmond.
Out in Minnesota, the Quinn Hughes situation is shaping up as a major decision point. The Wild knew when they acquired him that there was no guarantee the defenseman would sign an extension, and that uncertainty hasn’t gone away. Hughes’ appeal goes beyond the contract question, too, with the chance to play closer to home alongside his brothers lingering in the background.
There’s also the roster reality Minnesota is staring at. The Wild didn’t land the top-six center they needed and lost several veteran forwards, which raises obvious questions about whether this group can stay with the league’s best teams.
Harman Dayal of The Athletic pointed out the stakes if Minnesota treats Hughes like a rental, writing, “If the Wild sell Hughes as a rental, they might get a package in the approximate range of a first-round pick and a top prospect. That’s much better than losing him for nothing, but it’d still be significantly less than what they gave up for him, and it would essentially mean punting on this season.”
Seattle is facing a similar kind of crossroads if its season goes sideways. Vince Dunn and Jared McCann are both sitting there as meaningful trade possibilities should the Kraken fall out of the race.
Both are productive, both matter, and both would be 31 in the first season of their next deals. McCann has dealt with injuries and his skating speed has dipped, while Dunn’s five-on-five play-driving has trailed off over the last few seasons.
The Kraken do have the cap room to keep both players. The bigger issue is whether their timelines line up with the club’s eventual championship window. If they don’t, Seattle could choose to cash in for picks and prospects and keep building around a younger core.
In Montreal, Josh Anderson’s strong start has reopened discussion about what comes next, but the Canadiens are not rushing into anything. Anderson is in the final year of his contract, and Darren Dreger reported on Early Trading that Montreal wants to extend him while also keeping its options open as general manager Kent Hughes continues looking for upgrades elsewhere on the roster.
Anderson, according to the report, wants to stay with the Canadiens, and his family likes living there. Even so, Montreal may prefer to hold off until it has a better sense of whether it can land a younger star or a second-line center.
Dreger said, “I know that general manager Kent Hughes spoke with Anderson before the start of the season to say, look, we’re focused on trade. We’re trying to bring in pieces to help this team.
So don’t take this the wrong way. We just need to wait until later, but we’ll get to you.”
As for Philadelphia, the rumors around Matvei Michkov didn’t go far before the Flyers started pushing back. Brandon J.
Sommermann said two Philadelphia sources told him the team has no intention of trading the young forward. An unverified video had mentioned the Edmonton Oilers as one of the teams allegedly involved, but no offer has been confirmed.
Elliotte Friedman also suggested that Flyers general manager Daniel Briere is trying to avoid a bad decision made under pressure.
In Other News...
Wild Kept Finding Offense In A Spot That Should Worry Rivals
The Wild are still piecing things together through a long injury list, but on Oct. 15 they found enough offense to pull out a 5-4 win over the Blues in St. Louis. Minnesota spotted the home side an early deficit, then leaned on a sharper attack and contributions from across the lineup to steady the night and keep the game from slipping away.
Matt Boldy was at the center of it, driving the comeback with a hat trick and four points as Minnesota kept finding answers in a spot that can swing a game quickly. Even without several regulars available, the Wild showed they can lean on skilled finishers and enough depth to make opponents pay if they lose track of the puck in the wrong area. [Read more 🡒]
Quinn Hughes Is Making Minnesota's Biggest Worry Harder To Ignore
Even with injuries thinning out the blue line, Quinn Hughes has been one of the reasons Minnesota has been able to keep its strong start rolling. The defenseman has taken on heavy ice time and added more offense than the Wild have expected, giving the team a stabilizing presence while several other key defenders have been sidelined. His impact shows up quickly in the way Minnesota plays when he is on the ice, especially alongside Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy.
What makes Hughes such a compelling subplot for the Wild is that his future remains unsettled even as his role keeps growing. He has not moved quickly toward a long-term extension, leaving Minnesota with a major contributor now and a looming question later. For a team trying to ride early momentum, that mix of immediate value and long-term uncertainty is becoming harder to overlook. [Read more 🡒]
Wild Suddenly Face A Quinn Hughes Decision They Feared
Quinn Hughes was supposed to be the kind of swing the Wild made to close the gap in their division, the sort of aggressive move that can reshape a roster if everything goes right. Instead, according to The Athletics Harman Dayal, Minnesota may already be staring at the uncomfortable part of that transaction, with Hughes still without a contract extension as the deadline picture starts to sharpen. The Wild paid a heavy price to get him, and the whole point was to make him part of the long-term core, not another expensive stopgap.
Now the question is whether that vision holds if the sides cannot get aligned soon enough. If Minnesota has to treat Hughes like a rental, the market would likely bring back a first-round pick and a top prospect, a decent haul in a vacuum but a far cry from the package the Wild originally sent out. Add in the clubs offseason moves and the pressure to keep pace in a tough division, and this has the feel of a decision the front office would rather not be forced into so quickly. [Read more 🡒]