The 2024-25 National Hockey League season is sliding in fast, and there are some interesting threads to follow as the season unfolds. After all, hockey is more fun when you know what you’re watching for.
Patrik Laine
Laine has made a name for himself for unexpected reasons. The Finnish forward was drafted second overall in 2016 by the Winnipeg Jets, immediately after Toronto Maple Leaf forward and now-captain Auston Matthews. In retrospect, Matthews was the right first pickt, but at the time, analysts debated whether he or Laine should be selected number one overall.
Laine’s career was off to a strong start in Winnipeg, but he struggled to find that game presence when he was traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets. Production has declined, but he has also been playing fewer games in his seasons spent in Columbus.
Last season, Laine played only 18 games before a fractured collarbone took him off the ice in December. He was approaching his return in January when he announced that he was entering the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program.
Laine requested a trade in August, and Columbus granted it just days later in an exchange with the Montreal Canadiens.
The hockey world will be watching Laine and rooting for a newfound surge of success. Coming off a change of scenery and the help of the assistance program, Laine may have a comeback season on the horizon.
Utah Hockey Club
The Arizona Coyotes has had a convoluted, troubled past. Now that owner Alex Meruelo has decided to step down from his role, the franchise has been dissolved, clearing a pathway for the Utah Hockey Club to start completely fresh.
Everything Utah does will be its first: first goals, first overtime games, first wins. The team is in a new arena with a new goal horn and new goal song.
Not only is Utah arriving with a clean slate, but the old Coyotes roster has been built up from their disappointing 2023-24 season. Arizona had been doing pretty well until the rumors about the move to Utah started, and the team entered a 14-game losing spiral. By the time they were able to straighten out from the tailspin, it was too far into the season to recover.
Since moving to Salt Lake City, the team has bolstered their blue line by acquiring star defenseman Mikhail Sergachev from the Tampa Bay Lightning, trading for John Marino and signing free agent Ian Cole. They have also re-signed Sean Durzi after his one season with the Coyotes.
Young forwards like Logan Cooley, Dylan Guenther and Josh Doan will come into the season with some NHL seasoning.
The Utah Hockey Club could be a fun watch this season. Even if they don’t make it far, they can celebrate the small things, like being the first NHL team to have ever played for Utah.
Calder Trophy Race
The past couple seasons have had a fairly clear-cut rookie of the year. Last year, Chicago Blackhawk Connor Bedard ran away with the award, and Matty Beniers of the Seattle Kraken took home the Calder Trophy the year before without much contest.
This season, the picture is less defined. It can be more fun when that’s the case, though.
Last draft’s first overall pick, San Jose Shark and the pride of Boston University Macklin Celebrini, is in the conversation. His Shark teammate and college rival Will Smith, who went to Boston College, is right there with him in this race.
Smith’s college teammate, Cutter Gauthier, who played a single game for the Anaheim Ducks last season after Boston College lost the NCAA championship, has had his name thrown around, too.
The most compelling story belongs to Matvei Michkov of the Philadelphia Flyers. He was drafted seventh overall in 2023, but contract issues with his team in the Kontinental Hockey League in Russia buffered his arrival in the NHL. The Flyers were finally able to sign him to a three-year contract in July, and he will be a story to watch on his own.
There are even more names in the discourse surrounding the Calder Trophy. This includes players who have already impacted their current NHL teams and are still eligible, like Logan Stankoven in the Dallas Stars’ deep Stanley Cup Playoff run.
It’ll be fun to see how these players navigate and find success in the highest level of hockey.
Alex Ovechkin
The Washington Capitals’ 39-year-old Russian captain is chasing down history.
Wayne Gretzky set the all-time goals record in 1994 and kept adding to it until he sent his last puck to the back of the net in 1999 for a total of 894 career goals.
Ovechkin currently sits at 853.
Forty-two goals in a season is not out of the question, considering his track record of high-scoring seasons.
Gretzky’s records seemed impossible to break at one point. Although his assists and total points records will almost certainly stand for years to come, his hold on the career goals title may be broken after a 25-year reign. It’s not every season that you get to see history be made.
Last season was chaotic, to say the least — that bodes well for this upcoming season, as playoff races cinch tighter and an exciting new class of young players enters the league.
