{"id":67430,"date":"2025-08-08T10:56:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T10:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/67430\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T10:56:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T10:56:10","slug":"nhls-new-wisest-spenders-plus-happy-birthday-to-a-legend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/67430\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL\u2019s new wisest spenders. Plus: Happy birthday to a legend"},"content":{"rendered":"

Red Light newsletter\u00a0\ud83c\udfd2\u00a0| This is\u00a0The Athletic\u2019s hockey newsletter.\u00a0Sign up here<\/a>\u00a0to receive Red Light directly in your inbox.<\/p>\n

Good morning to everyone wondering why McIndoe changed his last name and stopped being funny. We\u2019re five weeks from July 1 in one direction and six weeks from training camp in the other. The NHL will never be quieter. We\u2019ll make it through together.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s get efficient<\/p>\n

I say this with the utmost sincerity, and I don\u2019t mean it as a backhanded compliment: If it weren\u2019t for Dom Luszczyszyn, the offseason would (somehow) be even more dull. Last week, he dropped his list of the best<\/a> and worst<\/a> contracts in the league. This week \u2014 since not every team can employ your Brandon Hagels, your Jack Hugheses or your Jonathan Huberdeaus \u2014 he\u2019s doing full cap-sheet evaluations for every roster, with the Tampa Bay Lightning making a huge leap from No. 13 last year to the No. 1 wisest spenders this year.<\/p>\n

A few other takeaways from Dom\u2019s contract efficiency rankings:<\/p>\n

\u2022 I appreciate the volatility. Only two teams in the league have three A-grade contracts and three D-grade contracts. One of them (Canadiens) can blame their old general manager. The other one (Kings) definitely, definitely cannot.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Where are the Panthers? In the right spot for this sort of exercise, actually. Brad Marchand, as you may have heard, is old, and Sam Bennett isn\u2019t paid for his regular-season work. Those aren\u2019t the kind of deals that grade out all that well. Seeing the champs somewhere other than No. 1 wasn\u2019t surprising.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Oh, Seattle. Remember the expansion draft and all that talk of \u201cweaponized cap space?\u201d Whatever happened there?<\/p>\n

The full list<\/a> is worth your time. These are vegetables, sure, but they\u2019re well-seasoned.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

(Justin K. Aller \/ Getty Images)Sid City<\/p>\n

As a Pittsburgh resident, I shouldn\u2019t be working today. It\u2019s Sidney Crosby\u2019s 38th birthday, which is technically a civic holiday. Banks are closed and everything.<\/p>\n

In honor of all that, Josh Yohe put together a few nice, Crosby-centric pieces. The first is a thorough accounting of his greatest goals<\/a>. I won\u2019t spoil the whole thing. I will, however, spoil No. 1, because I agree with Josh and was in the building for it: In 2011, on his second shift back from the concussion-related catastrophe that derailed his career, Crosby made a play behind his own net, skated up ice and, after getting the puck, went wide to beat Anders Nilsson. Then he said a bad word, very happily and very loudly.<\/p>\n

Was it Crosby\u2019s most spectacular goal? No. Did it come when the stakes were the highest? From a team standpoint, another no. The full context, though, makes it a no-brainer choice. Fourteen years have passed, and Crosby has reinforced his greatness a hundred times over, but it\u2019s always worth remembering just how close it all came to falling apart. Don\u2019t ever take players like him for granted.<\/p>\n

Josh didn\u2019t stop there. This collection of small, previously untold moments<\/a> that give a glimpse into who Crosby is as a person, from a reporter who\u2019s been around him as much as anybody is even more fun. And don\u2019t miss this Crosby-centric Q&A with Josh<\/a> and his column on what No. 87\u2019s final chapters in the NHL<\/a> might look like.<\/p>\n

Trivia time \ud83d\udca1<\/p>\n

In 2007, the Penguins made Crosby the youngest captain in NHL history at 19 years and 297 days old. Since then, two players have broken that record. Who are they?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

(Jeff Chevrier \/ Getty Images)Slow and slower<\/p>\n

Two weeks back, McIndoe quantified just how thoroughly the league had shut down. It\u2019s time for an update.<\/p>\n

As of today, it\u2019s been \u2026<\/p>\n

13 days since the last trade (San Jose acquired Oskar Olausson from Colorado for Danil Gushchin. The players have 22 NHL games between them.)
\n21 days since the last trade involving an established NHL player (Dakota Joshua to the Leafs for a pick.)
\n27 days since the last UFA to sign with a new team on a deal worth more than $1 million AAV (Jeff Skinner to the Sharks.)
\n28 days since the last trade involving NHL players on both sides (If you count Vladislav Kolyachonok, who was traded in the Matt Dumba salary dump.)
\n35 days since the last UFA to sign with a new team on a multiyear deal worth more than $1 million AAV (Nikolaj Ehlers to the Hurricanes.)
\n15 minutes since I googled \u201cNick Robertson trade rumors.\u201d (Ol\u2019 DGB had to take PTO at some point.)
\nCoast to Coast<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udf7b I\u2019ve learned plenty from Fluto Shinzawa\u2019s work over the years, and this piece<\/a> on the drinking habits (or lack thereof) among some NHL players is no different.<\/p>\n

\ud83e\udd14 We mentioned Nick Robertson earlier. He\u2019s a Maple Leaf for now after a one-year deal to avoid arbitration, but his situation still feels pretty murky, as Chris Johnston wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2708\ufe0f I have a feeling the Jets are going to get their money\u2019s worth<\/a> from Dylan Samberg, who signed a three-year deal last week.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc68\ud83c\udffb\u200d\u2696\ufe0f Justice McIndoe presides over the Cap Court<\/a>, where he examines whether five players\u2019 contracts \u2014 including one that runs until 2032 \u2014 are bad or not.<\/p>\n

\ud83e\udd47 It\u2019s (seriously) already time to talk about World Junior roster projections, and the prospects guys have you covered<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udf99\ufe0f Over on \u201cThe Athletic Hockey Show,\u201d McIndoe and I were joined by beat writers for the Sabres, Penguins, Red Wings and Flyers to discuss how to get each of these teams out of their rebuilds<\/a> and into the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Your trivia answer<\/p>\n

Gabriel Landeskog was named Avs captain when he was 11 days younger than Crosby; Connor McDavid was named Oilers captain when he was 31 days younger.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udceb Love Red Light?\u00a0Check out\u00a0The Athletic\u2019s other newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

(Top photo of Brandon Hagel: Mike Carlson \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Red Light newsletter\u00a0\ud83c\udfd2\u00a0| This is\u00a0The Athletic\u2019s hockey newsletter.\u00a0Sign up here\u00a0to receive Red Light directly in your inbox. Good…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67431,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-67430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}