32 Thoughts Podcast: Pre-season toil and tension
In this episode of 32 Thoughts, Kyle Bukauskas and Elliotte Friedman speak about the Jeremy Swayman-Boston Bruins tension, Conor Geekie’s one game suspension, the Board of Governors meetings this week, and more.
For the last time from now until April, we’re doing a power ranking that contains no team records.
The puck drops for real today in Czechia and, by this time next week, every NHL team will have played their first game of the 2024-25 regular season following the Buffalo Sabres and New Jersey Devils breaking the ice in Europe.
It’s on, my friends.
To help everybody get ready for the regular season, we’re nixing all negativity and highlighting at least one reason for optimism in all 32 NHL burghs. It doesn’t matter whether your ambitions are centred on championship runs, squeezing in the playoffs or having the lottery balls fall your way; everybody is entitled to some hockey hope this time of year.
So, without further delay, here’s a warm thought for every squad in the NHL.
1. Edmonton Oilers Technically, this is the first full year under coach Kris Knoblauch and he had .703 points percentage after taking over the Edmonton bench in November of 2023. Things are never as easy as they seem, but the Oilers could cruise to top spot in the Pacific.
2. Dallas Stars This team has made the final four each of the past two springs and — from really young guys like Wyatt Johnston, Logan Stankoven and Thomas Harley, to early-prime players like Miro Heiskanen, Jake Oettinger and Jason Robertson — it still feels like there so much room to grow.
3. New York Rangers Year 5 Alexis Lafreniere.
4. Florida Panthers If anyone can keep a team that’s been to two straight finals motivated, it’s Paul Maurice.
5. New Jersey Devils Even if the battery of Jacob Markstrom and Jake Allen is a top-12 duo in the league, this team’s potential is off the charts.
6. Toronto Maple Leafs Auston Matthews has scored 169 goals since the start of 2021-22, 21 more than anybody else in the league.
7. Colorado Avalanche If — at some point — both Valeri Nichushkin and Gabriel Landeskog can rejoin the Avs this season, Colorado could look the best it’s been since winning the title two years ago.
8. Vegas Golden Knights Tomas Hertl and Noah Hanifin are getting full seasons in the desert and Shea Theodore — after playing 47 games last season and 55 the year before — is primed for a healthy bounce-back.
9. Carolina Hurricanes Pyotr Kochetkov will become a true No. 1 this season and help offset the loss of Bret Pesce and Brady Skjei.
10. Tampa Bay Lightning The more you think about it, the more it feels like the Bolts needed a jolt and — difficult as it is to see Steven Stamkos and Mikhail Sergachev go — you wonder if some new blood (Jake Guentzel, J.J. Moser) isn’t exactly what’s needed to squeeze the final few drops out of this modern-day dynasty.
11. Boston Bruins You’ve got to have faith in the Bruins winning infrastructure, which is strong enough to absorb Jeremy Swayman’s absence. For a while, anyway.
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12. Vancouver Canucks For everything they’ve been through already, Elias Pettersson will be just 25 years old on opening night, while captain Quinn Hughes — coming off a Norris Trophy season — is only 24.
13. Nashville Predators Just knowing how all-in the Barry Trotz-led hockey ops department is has to make Preds fans delighted.
14. Washington Capitals The defence corps looks so much healthier with Jakob Chychrun occupying a spot on the left side of the top four and Matt Roy doing the same on the starboard side.
15. Winnipeg Jets Two goal-scorers — Kyle Connor and Gabe Vilardi — missed significant time last season. Let’s give them both healthy years and hope they combine for 75 tallies.
16. Detroit Red Wings Ultimately, the Red Wings took care of business and got both Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider signed and back in the fold well before the start of the season. Now Motor City fans can focus on watching the rise of defenceman Simon Edvinsson.
17. Ottawa Senators The two things that, perhaps, have the most power to make a hockey fan feel completely hopeless are bad ownership and bad goaltending. The Sens now have strong ownership and quality goaltending.
18. New York Islanders Noah Dobson busted out last season and the talented — and big — 24-year-old may still have another gear to find.
19. Los Angeles Kings The Kings have had a lynchpin right-shot D-man on their roster since Drew Doughty entered the league 15 years ago. By February, it’s going to be easy to believe young righty Brandt Clarke can take care of the next 15.
20. Buffalo Sabres Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen could sniff the Vezina chase this season.
21. St. Louis Blues Newcomers Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway are going to excel in larger roles.
22. Philadelphia Flyers Matvei Michkov has more skill than any rookie entering the league and, apparently, coach John Tortorella is here for it, “Michigans” and all.
23. Utah Hockey Club Clayton Keller’s first year as captain is going to coincide with his first 40-goal, 90-point campaign.
24. Minnesota Wild When Matt Boldy gets in the lineup, he’s going to find a new level.
25. Seattle Kraken A new coach with a Cup (Dan Bylsma), a new top-four D-man who just won the Cup (Brandon Montour) and a new top-six forward who won the 2023 title (Chandler Stephenson). That’s a lot of winning pedigree landing in Seattle.
26. Montreal Canadiens Was there a single pre-season list of breakout candidates that didn’t include 20-year-old Juraj Slafkovsky?
27. Anaheim Ducks Pick a young guy’s name out of a hat, from sophomores Leo Carlsson and Pavel Mintyukov to rookie Cutter Gauthier to goalie Lukas Dostal (24 years old) to forwards Mason McTavish (21) and, yeah, Trevor Zegras (23).
28. Chicago Blackhawks Watching Connor Bedard’s sophomore season would be enough, but with all the veteran adds over the summer, Chicago can absolutely be a competitive outfit every night.
29. Pittsburgh Penguins When 87 skates onto the ice, hope automatically overtakes the body.
30. Columbus Blue Jackets Adam Fantilli looks ready to do this thing.
31. Calgary Flames Who knows, by December it might be utterly clear Dustin Wolf is the goalie of the future.
32. San Jose Sharks Whatever the results this year, watching Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith take their first NHL strides should be more than enough to get Sharks supporters amped.
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