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Hello hockey followers, Max Bultman right here, filling in because the 2026 offseason reaches its ultimate days. We know the season is shut as a result of we’re lastly listening to from the sport’s greatest stars, because the NHL’s European Player Media Tour passed off over the weekend. That provided an opportunity for some perception into the summer season’s greatest matters. Let’s go.
Let’s Hear It
Draisaitl backs Babcock
The Edmonton Oilers are set to be much more below the microscope than regular this season — fairly a press release for a staff that’s been to 2 of the final three Stanley Cup finals, and fairly a season to welcome in The Athletic’s latest NHL beat author, Janson Duench.
That’s principally due to the ticking Connor McDavid clock. The sport’s finest participant is chasing a championship whereas the franchise that drafted him 11 years in the past works to show it may encompass him with sufficient assist to win it. In pursuit of that aim, the Oilers made some of the eye-raising strikes of a really busy summer season, hiring Mike Babcock as head coach, three years after he flamed out of an tried NHL return in Columbus less than 90 days after being employed, and earlier than his first season with the Blue Jackets even started.
Add in Babcock’s historical past with Mitch Marner and Johan Franzen, and the sight of him getting one other shot, this time making an attempt to get two of the league’s greatest stars over the hump, is an enormous story to observe.
But talking with The Athletic’s Chris Johnston in Munich, a kind of stars, Leon Draisaitl, defined how Babcock received over the staff’s management group with an trustworthy assembly.
“It was pretty clear pretty quick that he could be our guy,” Draisaitl instructed Johnston. “Just in what he sees, and his attitude towards us — you know, the leaders on the team that want to be coached and that want to be held accountable. I think it’s just what was needed. We had some great meetings with him and then, yeah, it just kind of took off from there.”
In some methods, the sentiment from Draisaitl and the Oilers’ stars of eager to be pushed more durable and be held extra accountable is spectacular, maybe admirable. But Babcock’s historical past makes him a lightning rod, and it’s honest to surprise if the Oilers are totally prepared for all the things that may include the rent. A whole lot is riding on it.
Tim Stützle. (James Guillory / Imagn Images)
Stützle, Seider converse
Speaking of German stars and their groups’ newsy summers, younger Atlantic Division foes Tim Stützle and Moritz Seider spoke to Johnston in regards to the Senators’ and Red Wings’ greatest offseason matters.
Ottawa, in fact, noticed its captain, Brady Tkachuk, traded to Florida — successful to the Senators’ bodily presence and scoring potential. But whereas Stützle is clearly conscious of that, he correctly targeted on turning the web page and the new gamers Ottawa introduced in, headlined by proficient younger winger William Eklund.
It seems to be as if the Senators may very well be in for a serious id shift from the punishing, pugnacious model of hockey Tkachuk was so central to, to maybe a sooner model led by Stützle and Eklund. But even after dealing their captain, the Sens nonetheless have an elite staff protection, wonderful younger facilities and a path to remaining an upstart younger staff within the East. Fascinating franchise.
Meanwhile, Seider additionally tried to not dwell on a chaotic summer season for his franchise — key phrase tried, contemplating a lot of the Red Wings’ uncertainty stays unresolved. They nonetheless don’t have a common supervisor — they’re the one staff with out one — and Dylan Larkin’s commerce request twists in the wind within the interim.
The 25-year-old Seider turned his focus inward, speaking about how he can hold bettering after a top-five end for the Norris Trophy final season: “There are a lot of question marks. The great thing about that is you can only control yourself.” Here are his full answers.
Because of all of the shifting elements, Detroit’s outlook is cloudier than the Senators’ proper now. But Seider is one factor the subsequent common supervisor received’t have to fret about in any respect in their first year.
- More from Munich: NHL gamers’ union boss Marty Walsh is bullish on the 2030 Olympics, and league deputy commissioner Bill Daly says the NHL is on observe to award its thirty third franchise to Texas — both Houston or Austin — as quickly as the top of the 12 months. Giddy up.
Brady Tkachuk, left, and his brother, Matthew. (Geoff Burke / Imagn Images)
Trivia Time
NHL captains aren’t traded fairly often, particularly if you happen to exclude in-season offers just like the Florida Panthers’ 2025 deadline acquisition of Brad Marchand. But the Panthers will probably be hoping their Tkachuk deal goes similar to one other offseason commerce from semi-recent historical past (assume this millennium), during which a re-homed captain instantly received the Stanley Cup in his first 12 months together with his new staff.
Who was that participant?
Hint: He was the identical age (26) as Tkachuk is now.
Answer on the backside.
Young Sharks celebrity Macklin Celebrini. (David Gonzales / Imagn Images)
Crystal Ball
Who will rule in 2031?
After Corey Pronman rolled out his pipeline rankings final week, he added a new wrinkle: a projection of what the NHL standings may appear like five years from now, when all these farm techniques and younger gamers are lastly within the NHL.
That, in fact, provides some weight again to the league’s present heavyweights that won’t have star-studded farm techniques: Florida, Carolina, Tampa and Minnesota all nonetheless make the highest 10 on this checklist, regardless of being within the backside 10 of Pronman’s pipeline rankings.
Still, the No. 1 staff on each lists was the identical: 2031 is shaping as much as be a great time in San Jose.
A fast peek on the prime 5 within the 2030-31 rankings:
- San Jose Sharks
- Montreal Canadiens
- Utah Mammoth
- Buffalo Sabres
- Toronto Maple Leafs
Check out the full list to see the place your staff slots in.
Coast to Coast
Even extra protection from Munich! Lukáš Dostál on Leo Carlsson’s megadeal and its influence on the Ducks: “Money has to go somewhere … I’m just so happy for Leo.”
Missing Sean McIndoe? Get your repair right here, the place he digs into your wackiest concepts on the top of slow-news summer season. I just like the word/letter game.
While the Red Wings’ GM search continues, the checklist of semi-urgent duties for the eventual rent isn’t getting any shorter.
Scary information out West, as Arizona State University is investigating the circumstances surrounding an out of doors exercise that led to a males’s hockey participant collapsing. Katie Strang and Jeremy Rutherford have more here.
Murat Ates and Jesse Granger dive into Connor Hellebuyck’s surprisingly human NHL season in 2025-26, and what to expect from him going ahead.
“The Athletic Hockey Show” Prospect Series spent the week exploring Corey Pronman’s redrafts of 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025. Watch or listen here.
Mike Richards in 2012. (Louis Lopez / Associated Press)
Trivia Answer
Who was the captain who was traded by his former staff in the summertime and then received the Cup in Year 1 in his new residence?
That could be Mike Richards, who did it with the Los Angeles Kings after being acquired from the Philadelphia Flyers in June 2011.
Questions, feedback, corrections? We’d love to listen to from you. Email us at redlight@theathletic.com.
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