Justin Holl may have spent most of the 2025-26 season in the AHL, but he still looks like a real candidate to break camp with the Capitals if training camp goes his way.
Sammi Silber of The Hockey News reports that Holl’s path to an opening-night job will come down to performance, with younger options like David Gucciardi and Ryan Chesley pushing for spots and veteran Dylan McIlrath also in the mix. What gives Holl a real edge is Spencer Carbery’s familiarity with him. Carbery said earlier this summer that Holl is “a very, very reliable veteran” who can help on the penalty kill.
That connection matters because Carbery saw Holl up close in 2022-23, when he was an assistant on Sheldon Keefe’s staff in Toronto. That season, Holl led all Maple Leafs defensemen in short-handed ice time per game, logging more than three minutes a night. His work in that role helped him land a three-year deal with a $3.4MM AAV from the Detroit Red Wings last summer, and Washington is hoping he can find that level again.
Elsewhere in the Metropolitan Division, Islanders first-round pick Victor Eklund is in position to push for an NHL spot right away. Stefen Rosner of The Elmonters wrote that he believes Eklund “was NHL ready as soon as he came over from Sweden at the end of last season,” and the numbers back up the case. The 19-year-old put up 10 points in nine AHL games, picked up his first NHL point in his debut, and also scored 24 points in 43 SHL games for Djurgardens IF.
If Eklund doesn’t land a top-six role on Long Island, Rosner says he could start next season in the AHL with the Hamilton Hammers.
In Columbus, the Blue Jackets got RFA goalie Jet Greaves signed to a three-year extension at a $5MM AAV before arbitration ever got to the hearing stage. Even so, the negotiation revealed a sizable gap between the two sides.
Waddell told The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline that Greaves’ camp and the team “were so far apart on the money.” The deal now gives both sides a two-year window before Greaves can even become eligible to sign an extension on July 1, 2028, and it also sets up an important reference point as he heads toward unrestricted free agency in the summer of 2029.
In Other News...
Islanders Fans Just Turned This Jersey Contest Into Franchise History
The Islanders Design the Third Jersey contest for the 2027-28 season has already turned into a major fan event, with 80,490 submissions pouring in over just a little more than two weeks. For a franchise that has spent years trying to deepen its connection with the fan base, the response says plenty about how much interest there is in helping shape what the team wears next.
Now comes the harder part: narrowing that mountain of ideas down to five finalists. However the club sorts through the entries, whether with technology, human review or a mix of both, the process is about to move from open-ended creativity to a much tighter race, and those five designs will eventually go to a final fan vote to decide the jersey. [Read more 🡒]
Matthew Schaefer Is Already Entering An Elite Team Canada Conversation
Matthew Schaefer is already showing up in some pretty lofty company. NHL.coms early projection for the 2027 NHL All-Star Game has the Islanders defenseman on Team Canadas radar, a notable nod for a young player whose profile is still rising. The event is set for Feb. 5-6, 2027, at UBS Arena, and the format will bring together five international teams in front of a Long Island crowd that knows Schaefer well.
The projection is only a snapshot, of course, with fan voting still to come later in the season and plenty of room for the picture to change. Even so, being mentioned this early in a Team Canada conversation says something about how Schaefer is being viewed around the league, especially when the names around him are the kind that usually define those rosters. For the Islanders, it is another reminder that one of their most important young pieces is already being discussed on a much bigger stage. [Read more 🡒]