Red Light newsletter 🏒 | This is The Athletic’s hockey newsletter. Sign up here to receive Red Light directly in your inbox.
Good morning, hockey folks. The NHL is back, with no games tonight, 16 games – and all 32 teams playing – on Saturday, and one game on Sunday. Clearly, the schedule maker had plans on two of those nights as we all celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving.
Way-too-early conclusions
Yes, we’re only three days into the 2025-26 season, and teams have played only a combined 21 games. But with every NHL team already getting into action, we’ve strapped ourselves in, “Clockwork Orange” style, and have been able to get a snippet of insight into what’s happening all around the league.
A small snippet, sure, but it’s enough that we can squeeze some insights out of what’s unfolded. Here’s what you may have missed so far …
The best team in the league is … well, we have four tied at 2-0-0 and only two of them are who you’d expect.
The two-time defending champion Florida Panthers made short work of an easy early schedule by beating the sad-sack Blackhawks and Flyers, although without Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk, the Panthers put up only five goals combined in the two games.
(It’s a fair question where Florida will find offense this year, although its regular season really doesn’t matter that much, given it can do damage from any seed.)
The Avalanche are also, unsurprisingly, undefeated thus far, taking out the Kings on Tuesday and the Mammoth last night.
More surprisingly, the Pittsburgh Penguins and Boston Bruins – two teams everyone had earmarked for the draft lottery – are on a heater, having beaten the Rangers, Islanders, Capitals and Blackhawks already.
OK, not exactly a Murderer’s Row of Cup-contending opponents, but still, we’re betting you didn’t have Penguins fourth-liner Justin Brazeau (he of three goals so far) and Bruins defenseman Nikita Zadorov (who’s somehow averaging nearly 24 minutes a game) as two of the early standouts.
Pittsburgh is a fun story, but the Penguins lack the depth to keep this mini-run going, especially once they start their anticipated roster selloff.
Boston, on the other hand, could surprise a little this season after last year’s complete meltdown. The Bruins may not score much, but if Jeremy Swayman keeps stopping everything like this, they could grind out a lot of low-scoring games this season to get closer to respectability.
The Atlantic Division is going to be a real battle this year.
The Blackhawks are as bad as expected through two games, both losses. (Rich Gagnon / Getty Images)
The worst team is … Chicago. The Blackhawks are the only team to have lost two games so far, so we’ll go with them. This is not surprising at all and likely a sign of things to come, as they pursue another No. 1 pick to play with Connor Bedard.
Those odds improve if they keep getting outshot by an average of 35-21 in games the rest of the way. Godspeed to Spencer Knight and Arvid Söderblom, who should be getting paid by the save this season.
The leading scorers are … headed by Vegas Golden Knights captain Jack Eichel, who’s having a good week. He has a big shiny new contract and was the NHL’s first player to six points thanks to a four-point night over the Kings in Game 1 and a wacky tying goal from center ice last night in an OT win over San Jose:
OH NO Jack Eichel scores off a bad bounce to tie the game with less than 2 minutes!!!!! 💀 pic.twitter.com/ABZDdfNv4j
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) October 10, 2025
After Eichel atop the Art Ross leaderboard:
2. Evgeni Malkin (Pittsburgh): five points
t-3. David Pastrňák (Boston): four points
t-3. Pavel Dorofeyev (Vegas): four points
t-3. Mark Stone (Vegas): four points
Here’s hoping you have them in your fantasy pool.
New contracts seem to be good luck charms, as Winnipeg’s Kyle Connor potted a hat trick in a losing cause last night to sit second in NHL goal scoring, a day after he locked in as a Jet long-term.
The best goalie is … Wild netminder Filip Gustavsson, who’s coming off a big shutout of the Blues to open the season. He stopped 26 shots and 3.1 expected goals against in an impressive 5-0 win in St. Louis last night, as Minnesota sets out to make a statement that it’s joining the contenders this season.
Other strong starts have come from Igor Shesterkin with the Rangers, Swayman in Boston, and a couple of young backups who are still Calder Trophy-eligible this year: Jakub Dobeš in Montreal and Artūrs Šilovs in Pittsburgh.
The toughest start so far? John Gibson, who was pulled after allowing five goals on 13 shots in his much-anticipated debut in Detroit last night. Ouch.
The rookies to watch are … all over the place. Oliver Kapanen, the 22-year-old Habs freshman, became the first Calder-eligible player to net two goals with the winner in last night’s 5-1 victory over the Red Wings.
Other rookies on the board with goals already: Harrison Brunicke (Pittsburgh, 19 years old), Matvei Gridin (Calgary, 19), Beckett Sennecke (Anaheim, 19), Jonathan Lekkerimäki (Vancouver, 21) and ex-KHL star Max Shabanov (N.Y. Islanders, 25).
The ice-time leader among rookies, meanwhile, is Detroit’s Axel Sandin-Pellikka, who, at just 20, looked really solid in nearly 23 minutes on the second pair in a losing cause. That’s the kind of good news story the Red Wings need this year if they’re going to climb the standings.
💡 MirTrivia Question, early season edition
Ageless wonder Sidney Crosby scored again last night. This was his 626th career goal, which is the fifth-most in NHL history with one franchise.
So, which one-team legend who retired in 2009 did he pass with the goal?
And can you name the four other players who have more goals than Crosby with one team?
Answers below.
The Elias Petterssons aren’t the first pair of same-named teammates in Vancouver — or even in the league. (Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; Jeff Vinnick / Getty, Darryl Dyck / AP Photo)
Coast to coast
One of the things we try to do here at Red Light 🚨 is direct you to some of the best reads on the site every week. Here are some of our top hockey stories from the past few days.
🤯 The Canucks somehow have three Petterssons and two of them have the same first name: Elias. Confusing. And, amazingly, it’s not the first time this has happened in Vancouver. Rob Rossi has the story.
🏒 Sean Gentille was there for Gavin McKenna’s home debut in the NCAA as the hype keeps building for the sport’s Next One.
🤔 This story from Sean McIndoe lists his “All-Intrigue” roster for 2025-26, with one name from each team. Yes, we’re intrigued.
🪽 Is patience running out for the Yzerplan in Detroit? A great read from Max Bultman on what will be a fascinating season for the Red Wings this year.
🎤 “The Athletic Hockey Show” crew digs into Jack Eichel’s big extension in Vegas and starts projecting Canada and the United States’ Olympic teams in the most recent two episodes.
Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper is one of the most interesting people in hockey. (Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
The 25 names that matter this season
Chris Johnston’s latest column lays out his 25 players, coaches and execs he’ll be watching closely this season, with in-depth reasoning for each.
The top five are names you might expect – Connor McDavid, Crosby, Penguins GM Kyle Dubas, projected 2026 No. 1 draft pick Gavin McKenna, and Mitch Marner – but there are some interesting calls further down the list, too.
One such name is Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper, who is one of the most interesting people in the game to chat with and who checks in at No. 18:
“You have a Lightning team with designs on reclaiming former glory. And they’re doing it with Cooper behind the bench for a 13th straight season. That’s an impossibly long time in a ‘What have you done for me lately?’ league and speaks to Cooper’s unique ability to continually find new ways to bring the best out of his athletes and keep the program from growing stale.
“There’s no one else quite like him in hockey. He’s also going to be behind Team Canada’s bench at the Milan Olympics, which means for two weeks in February, he’s going to have his decisions more closely scrutinized than the Prime Minister.”
Check out C.J.’s full list for a nice breakdown of the league’s top newsmakers.
Your MirTrivia Answer …
With a power-play goal in the second period last night, Crosby zipped up the all-time list past Joe Sakic, who had 625 goals in a storied career with the Quebec Nordiques / Colorado Avalanche franchise.
The other four players still ahead of Crosby are iconic names:
4. Mario Lemieux, Pittsburgh, 690 goals
3. Steve Yzerman, Detroit, 692
2. Gordie Howe, Detroit, 786
1. Alex Ovechkin, Washington, 897
Crosby is 38 years old and dipped to 33 goals last year, but catching Lemieux and Yzerman feels doable if he stays with the Penguins another two years. Howe and Ovechkin? Probably not.
📫 Love Red Light? Check out The Athletic’s other newsletters.