Every summer, owners empty their pocketbooks as they watch their general manager’s attempt to draft, spend and trade their way to a Stanley Cup. Each year, the goal is to go out and make their team better than the year before. Some are excellent at it, making smart acquisitions during free agency and addressing big-time […]

Every summer for the past three years, Jim Nill has seemingly done the impossible. Tyler Seguin and Jason Spezza were acquired by trade during the first two July’s of Nill’s career as he set out to fortify the middle of the ice. Both of those moves happened quickly after free agency opened up on July […]

Over the next several weeks I will be looking at each team in the NHL from an analytical perspective. What they did well, what they did poorly and what players contributed to their success (or failure). Teams will be reviewed in the order of which they finished. That should please Toronto Maple Leaf fans as […]

If you haven’t heard by now, Nail Yakupov has reportedly requested a trade out of Edmonton. He’s had a quite a bit of trouble in Edmonton but has shown flashes of what he is capable of doing. There certainly is still potential there but it feels as though he could use a change of scenery. […]

One thing is for certain, the Dallas Stars will be returning to the postseason in just a few short weeks. They have already clinched their spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs and are currently in a battle with the St. Louis Blues for the top spot in the Central Division and perhaps the entire Western […]

Would anybody be surprised to see the Dallas Stars get swept in the first round of the postseason? They have become one of the hardest teams to predict this season with how volatile their play style is. They generate a ton of offense but also allow chances in nearly equal amounts. They are the very […]

The future for a handful of players on the Dallas Stars is incredibly murky. One thing that is clear is they will be participating in the postseason after a dominant performance against the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday night. They scored six goals on their way to clinching a playoff spot over the Blackhawks. Four of […]

Unless this is the first hockey-related thing you’ve participated in for over six years, you know the Chicago Blackhawks and Los Angeles Kings have an absolute stranglehold on the Western Conference. They have combined to win the Stanley Cup five of the past six seasons and control the fates of everyone in the West. Or […]

Patrice Bergeron is seemingly perpetually the front-runner for the Selke Trophy, an award given to the best defensive forward at the end of the regular season. Many believe that Anze Kopitar or perhaps Jonathan Toews (to a lesser extent) is Bergeron’s toughest competition when it comes to the Selke. Is that really the case this […]

As the Dallas Stars continue to march towards the postseason, it is time to look at potential first-round match-ups and what the ideal option is for Dallas. They’ve played the Central Division incredibly well this year, posting an overall record of 15-7-3 so far. Although they have just 11 games left in the regular season, […]

Alex Goligoski is set to be an unrestricted free agent on July 1st of this year and he will be one of the more coveted defenseman on the open market, if he makes it that far. Ideally, the Dallas Stars would like to retain their top-pairing defenseman but the salary cap and their current log […]

It is just about time to get the votes in for the Calder Trophy and there is a huge debate surrounding it. I’m having trouble seeing why. Do you give it to the rookie with the most points? Do you give it to the rookie who is most valuable to their team? Or do you […]

The votes are starting to pile in for the end-of-season awards given out in Las Vegas. Jamie Benn took it upon himself to steal an award last season with his four-point performance in the final game of the regular season, earning him an Art Ross trophy. As of this writing, Benn is 12 points back […]

Chemistry is a tough thing to cultivate in the salary cap world of the NHL. Trades are forced due to under-performing, large contracts. Some players are shipped off simply because that team no longer has room for them. Finding chemistry between players is hard when all that is forced upon them all the time. Then […]

It’s overtime. Game six of the series. If you win, you send the series back to your building for a game seven. If you lose, the season is over. Who’s starting that overtime for you? Who’s getting the majority of the minutes? Probably the player who time and time again has proven themselves to be […]

Despite coming within two wins of the Stanley Cup last season, the Tampa Bay Lightning seem to have slipped under the radar this season. Maybe it has to do with the Washington Capitals’ dominance of the East up until this point. Maybe it has to do with the Lightning’s slow start to the season. Or […]

“Clutch” is a word that gets thrown around quite a bit in the world of sports. Clutch scorers are hard to come by in the NHL today. Whether it is a big goal at a crucial point in the game or a defensive-zone shot-block in overtime, being “clutch” is a defining characteristic of champions in […]

We have arrived at that time of year. Teams will start getting eliminated from the postseason and postseason contention. Your favorite team will play its last game of the season at some point in the coming months. It could be in the next week. It could be in the next month. It could be deep […]

“Maybe it was his best 3 games I watched, but I said, ‘This guy is going to be the best in the world one day,’ ” That quote is from Jaromir Jagr (courtesy of Tom Gulitti), praising then-rookie Valeri Nichushkin on the games that Jagr has watched him play. While Nichushkin certainly has a long […]

If you haven’t heard it by now, you’re about to. Goaltending in the Eastern Conference is absolutely absurd. Both divisions are just stacked full of netminding talent and there are some promising young goaltenders that are on the way up as well. Petr Mrazek is the first name that comes to mind when you think […]