The NHL’s first week has already turned into a nightly scoring circus, and the shortened preseason looks like the biggest reason why. Games are swinging into 9-7 and 8-4 territory, and there’s been at least one lopsided result every night. Canucks coach Manny Malhotra may have put his finger on it best: teams are basically still in preseason mode, only now the games count.
That matters because the league trimmed exhibition games from seven or eight down to four. That leaves a lot less time to build chemistry, install systems, and clean up mistakes before opening night arrives.
The result has been loose structure and a lot of chaos. Early injuries are part of the picture too, with players and coaches trying to cram a normal month of preparation into a much smaller window.
It’s entertaining if you like offense, but it also feels like the natural byproduct of a compressed ramp-up, and it’s something the league may have to sort out if this format sticks.
Meanwhile, Sid Seixeiro is back on the same old Connor McDavid script. After just two games, he said McDavid is definitely leaving Edmonton, pointing to years of defensive and goaltending mismanagement and insisting nobody can argue with him.
The problem is that he’s been making the same case for years. McDavid has never said he’s unhappy or wants out, and when the Oilers have stumbled, he’s usually done the opposite of drifting away.
He’s stayed invested, and he even helped push for bringing in Babcock this summer.
That’s why plenty of fans saw Seixeiro’s latest shot for what it was: obvious rage bait. Two games into a new coaching era is a flimsy place to declare a superstar’s future settled, and unless Edmonton stops being competitive enough to give McDavid a real chance at a Cup, the sense around the team is that he’s not going anywhere soon.
And then there’s Toronto, where the old story about the Maple Leafs’ massive core contracts is starting to flip. For years, those deals were treated like a warning label - big money, little flexibility, and a flat cap that made everything worse. Now the cap is projected to climb to $127.5 million by 2028-29, and those same contracts suddenly look like an edge.
According to Sportsnet’s Luke Fox, Toronto already has six forwards, both goalies, and its top four defencemen locked up for a combined $71 million by then. That would leave $56.5 million to deal with Matthews and fill out the rest of the roster. The bigger picture is that the Leafs may be entering the cap boom in a far stronger spot than they were during the freeze.
That also ties into how Chayka handled this summer. He avoided the kind of expensive, speculative long-term bets that caught other general managers, including the ones in Anaheim and San Jose, in awkward spots.
Most of Toronto’s current contracts - even some signed before he arrived - are aging well, and he’s said he’s comfortable waiting instead of forcing big moves. The twist is hard to ignore: the team that got burned hardest by the flat cap could wind up among the league’s best-positioned clubs when the money finally starts flowing.
In Other News...
Leafs Let Ottawa Off The Hook When It Mattered Most
After a 3-2 loss to the Senators, Jim Hiller had plenty to unpack about a game that slipped away in familiar fashion. The Maple Leafs created looks, saw the puck ring off posts and crossbars, and got a few encouraging shifts from the Tavares line, but the finish never came. Hiller said the missed chances were part of the story, along with penalties that stalled momentum and left Toronto chasing the game instead of controlling it.
The late push only added to the frustration. Toronto had a 6-on-5 power-play opportunity in the final moments, but the sequence never turned into the kind of sustained pressure the Leafs needed, and Hiller pointed to fatigue setting in as the clock wound down. It left the night with the same sour feeling that follows so many close losses: enough chances to change the result, not enough execution when it mattered most. [Read more 🡒]
Leafs Got An Opening Ottawa Could Not Afford To Give Away
Ottawas back end took a hit in the first period against the Maple Leafs when Jake Sanderson left the game injured and did not return. The status of the injury is still unclear, including whether it has anything to do with a previous issue, but his absence immediately changed the feel of the matchup and gave Toronto a chance to push the pace.
The Leafs wasted little time taking advantage, scoring twice in a row after Sanderson exited to grab a 2-1 lead. In a game where every shift mattered, Ottawa could not afford to lose one of its top defensemen, and Toronto quickly showed why those kinds of openings rarely stay closed for long. [Read more 🡒]
Maple Leafs Came Shockingly Close To A Very Different Matthew Knies Trade
Matthew Knies nearly became part of a very different early-career ripple across the league, one that started with Toronto and Montreal before the map shifted again. The original framework between the Maple Leafs and Canadiens never got across the finish line, but it was close enough to show how much interest there was around Knies and how quickly the conversation could have changed for both clubs.
Instead, Toronto wound up sending Knies to Columbus for Kirill Marchenko, a swap that has worked out well on both sides and kept both young forwards in environments where they have fit comfortably. Montreal, meanwhile, moved on from those trade talks and later addressed its roster by landing Chris Kreider in free agency, leaving the Leafs with a fascinating what-if that still lingers around a deal that never quite made it to the table in time. [Read more 🡒]