Thankfully the AHL results were quite encouraging, lighting it up for the Syracuse Crunch with 59 points in 57 games, third best on the club. It\u2019s not like the seat is burning hot for Geekie, but entering the final season of his entry-level contract, there\u2019s a big opportunity to step up. Tampa Bay focused on improving their bottom six this off-season, led by the addition of Ilya Mikyehev<\/a>, so as a result there\u2019s a real chance at a top-six role even if it\u2019s on the wing to start. With the upside to becoming a strong middle-six power forward center, it\u2019s a critical season for the Manitoba native. He\u2019ll hope to become an everyday player, a leap somewhere in the realm of his brother Morgan<\/a> who exploded into a 39-goal scorer in Boston.<\/p>\n Marco Kasper \u2013 Detroit Red Wings<\/p>\n This time last year the idea of Marco Kasper<\/a> being in such a standing seemed impossible, but that\u2019s the case for the 22-year-old who had 19 goals two seasons ago, with much changing in Hockeytown since. A candidate to step up into a bonafide young star last season, it didn\u2019t happen for the center. Suiting up for 81 games but coming away with just nine goals and 19 points, Kasper\u2019s ice time dropped nearly two full minutes under Todd McLellan<\/a>. To be fair, sophomore slumps happen, experiencing rotten luck with a shooting percentage just under 7%. The youngster who received Calder votes showed a nice improvement on the face-off dot, winning 51.5%, worthy to consider him a true pivot with second-line upside.<\/p>\n The wheels are officially off the Steve Yzerman<\/a> plan. It\u2019ll benefit Kasper greatly in the final season of his entry-level deal, with question marks surrounding the entire veteran core, especially 1C Dylan Larkin<\/a>. If he can come in and impress during camp, the Austrian has a chance to play alongside a winger like Alex DeBrincat<\/a>. Andrew Copp<\/a> just turned in a career-best in assist totals at age 32, but if Detroit is ready to embrace the future, it would be smart to set up Kasper in the best possible situation, easing him into a larger role for stretches all season.<\/p>\n Leevi Merilainen \u2013 Ottawa Senators<\/p>\n Names like Boston\u2019s Matthew Poitras<\/a> don\u2019t quite fit the bill, still without a contract, so there\u2019s an off-the-board pick between the pipes to wrap up the Atlantic. Ottawa\u2019s Leevi Merilainen<\/a> has flashed potential at age 24 but has a lot to prove in 2026-27 after a tough campaign. They brought in<\/a> Samuel Ersson<\/a> as a result, so it looks like the 24-year-old Finn will have to start out in AHL Belleville. Drafted in the third round with a pick acquired from Winnipeg for Dylan DeMelo<\/a>, Merilainen was excellent in 2024-25, managing to hold a .925 save percentage in 12 games, winning eight of them.<\/p>\n With the uncertainty<\/a> surrounding Linus Ullmark<\/a>, last season presented a perfect opportunity but it didn\u2019t materialize. Merilainen was fourth worst in the NHL among qualifying goaltenders with a -17.3 saves above expected, according to Moneypuck<\/a>, although he was the only struggling puck stopper in the bottom 10 to play less than 27 games (20). It was tough enough that Ottawa tapped into the January free agent market<\/a> with a 37-year-old James Reimer<\/a>. Merilainen earned a one-year deal<\/a> in July with \u201cprove-it\u201d written all over it. Feasibly holding NHL backup potential, everybody alike wishes that Ullmark\u2019s personal matters are in order, ready to hold down the crease in Ottawa next season and beyond. Hopefully so, there\u2019s still question marks behind him, Ersson having his own lackluster play last year in Philadelphia. A strong AHL campaign would get Merilainen right back into the NHL conversation. His Belleville club ranked 27th in the league last year, so they\u2019ll be looking for a bounce-back all around.<\/p>\n Image Credit: Marc DesRosiers-Imagn Images via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With opening night 36 days away, it is time to break down young players from each division across…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":870837,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,302392,175459,38568,448,2368,82],"class_list":["post-870836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-conor-geekie","tag-leevi-merilainen","tag-marco-kasper","tag-nhl","tag-pro-hockey-rumors-originals","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870836","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=870836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/870837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/2026-01-11T034605Z_1522982033_MT1USATODAY27981793_RTRMADP_3_NHL-FLORIDA-PANTHERS-AT-OTTAWA-SENATORS-.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n