{"id":262181,"date":"2025-11-05T00:16:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T00:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/262181\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T00:16:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T00:16:10","slug":"10-game-milestone-looms-for-nhl-rookies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/262181\/","title":{"rendered":"10-game milestone looms for NHL rookies"},"content":{"rendered":"

TSN\u2019s Hockey Insiders on which first-year players to watch for the 10-game mark, Adam Lowry<\/a> and the Jets, Dubas on the Pens\u2019 surprising start\/Crosby\u2019s future, how the Caps hope to cover the loss of Dubois, Michkov\u2019s slow start and the NHL\u2019s hope for a record-setting crowd at Jerry World.<\/p>\n

Gino Reda: With the Insiders, Chris Johnston, Pierre LeBrun and Darren Dreger. Just under a month into the NHL regular season, and there\u2019s a key milestone that means some NHL teams have some big decisions to make, CJ.<\/p>\n

Chris Johnston: Yeah, that would be the 10-game hurdle, which if you\u2019re a teenage player in the NHL and you can be sent back to junior, it\u2019s an important one to get across. It\u2019s officially when the entry-level contract kicks in and for teams it is a decision that has to come and it isn\u2019t to be taken lightly. <\/p>\n

Take the Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a>, for example, they\u2019re not afraid to do this, they\u2019ve done it with Ben Kindel<\/a> already, and they have Harrison Brunicke<\/a>, who at this point is at nine games and I can tell you that as of Tuesday, there\u2019s still some internal discussions as to what\u2019s next for him, nothing has been decided yet. <\/p>\n

You can see also, Michael Misa<\/a> in San Jose, Berkly Catton<\/a> in Seattle, those players are approaching that 10-game mark and so for them these are a critical couple of days because you\u2019re being evaluated each and every game to get there. <\/p>\n

Should be noted, of course, just because you get there doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t still be sent to junior or the World Junior team, and all three of those players will be on Canada\u2019s radar if they don\u2019t last in the NHL.<\/p>\n

Reda: Big news for Jets fans surrounding their captain on a couple of different fronts, Dregs?<\/p>\n

Darren Dreger: Yeah, it\u2019s such a great boost for the Winnipeg Jets<\/a> and the city of Winnipeg to get their captain, Adam Lowry<\/a>, back in the mix. It\u2019s also been a priority for a long, long time by the organization to get Lowry locked up longer term. <\/p>\n

We know that once Kyle Connor<\/a> extended with the Jets last month that the contract focus very quickly shifted over to Lowry. Both the team and the player are super motivated to get something done. It\u2019s not quite there yet, but it\u2019s getting closer, and having him back on the ice there is a big step in that direction.<\/p>\n

Reda: Pierre, back in September, you poured fuel on the fire of the Sidney Crosby<\/a> trade rumours when Sid told you he gets why there\u2019s all the talk, but has the Pens\u2019 play now poured water on that fire, at least temporarily?<\/p>\n

Pierre LeBrun: It sure has quieted down, and that was always the plan. In chatting with [Penguins general manager] Kyle Dubas, he says that he\u2019s had very clear communications since the end of last season with Crosby and his agent about what the plan was here moving forward. <\/p>\n

That plan is both the long-term view, which is to continue to make this team younger and the transition of the roster and overhaul, but also to be more competitive this year, so that Crosby\u2019s last few years on his contract are played in an environment where they\u2019re competitive and have a chance, and so far this year that\u2019s exactly what\u2019s happened, and as Crosby himself said in September, he gets why there\u2019s white noise after they missed the playoffs in three straight years, but the opening month has quieted that noise for now.<\/p>\n

Reda: On Monday the Capitals announced Pierre-Luc Dubois<\/a> is going to miss an extended amount of time with a lower-body injury – where do they look to fill that hole, Dregs?<\/p>\n

Dreger: Obviously there\u2019s no quick fix for a loss like this, and I know Pierre-Luc Dubois<\/a> is going through the second opinion process to make sure that his recovery path is headed in the right direction. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s believed that he\u2019s not going to be out the entire season, but the Capitals have acknowledged he is going to miss a significant amount of time. The Capitals, of course, will explore the trade market, but they need to be careful when moving out current or future assets, being mindful of whenever the post-Alex Ovechkin<\/a> era begins. <\/p>\n

In the meantime, they\u2019ll try to fill the hole internally – Connor McMichael<\/a> is a natural centre, he\u2019s already been flipped in to that role, and I expect that he\u2019ll get a real long look by [Capitals coach] Spencer Carbery down the road as well.<\/p>\n

Reda: Guys, Matvei Michkov<\/a> led all rookies in goals last season, but [has] just one so far heading in to Tuesday\u2019s action. What do the Flyers figure happened there, Pierre?<\/p>\n

LeBrun: What we\u2019re hearing is this: Michkov showed up to camp not in good enough shape to start his second NHL season. Obviously that\u2019s disappointing for the organization, but to the player\u2019s credit, he is putting in all the extra work right now to get back to where he needs to be, working with the Flyers\u2019 assistant coaches and he\u2019s been better of late. <\/p>\n

The fact is, because of where he started the year, behind the eight ball, he wasn\u2019t creating the kind of separation on the ice that he\u2019s used to, he\u2019s prone to turnovers, he was benched at times by head coach Rick Tocchet<\/a>, so disappointment, but not the first second-year player to have a bit of a sophomore situation here in his second season. <\/p>\n

The Flyers are confident he will be fine, but it\u2019s certainly disappointing.<\/p>\n

Reda: Speaking of disappointment, when the Dallas Cowboys make on-field news, we usually go to Cowboy lover Pierre, but this news surrounds the field itself, CJ?<\/p>\n

Johnston: It does, and the NHL made a big splash on Monday Night Football of all places, announcing the 2027 Stadium Series game at the home of the Cowboys, AT&T Stadium. <\/p>\n

What\u2019s interesting about this one is, I think as the league goes through more and more outdoor games, it\u2019s hard to differentiate them, make them stand out, but what\u2019s interesting about this one is there\u2019s a hope that they could get as many as 100,000 fans for that game. <\/p>\n

The Dallas Stars<\/a> set the bar pretty high at the Cotton Bowl in the Winter Classic in 2020, 85,000 fans, but there\u2019s a chance this gets in to six figures and could even threaten the all-time NHL record which is 105,000 fans at Michigan Stadium in 2014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TSN\u2019s Hockey Insiders on which first-year players to watch for the 10-game mark, Adam Lowry and the Jets,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[712,49,48,448,82,113867],"class_list":["post-262181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-washington-capitals-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-15"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}