NHL News

7:19 AM ET Tim KavanaghESPN.com Close Tim Kavanagh is a senior NHL editor for ESPN. He’s a native of upstate New York. While the playoff races for the No. 4 seeds around the NHL sometimes get more attention, tonight the spotlight will be at the teams vying for the top spot in three of the

9:00 AM ET Nicolas Deslauriers rose from the ice, blood trickling down his face from a cut on the bridge of his nose. He had thrown a flurry of right hands at San Jose Sharks forward Kurtis Gabriel before Gabriel threw him to the ice. It was the kind of spirited tussle that would have

6:59 AM ET Tim KavanaghESPN.com Close Tim Kavanagh is a senior NHL editor for ESPN. He’s a native of upstate New York. There was a time earlier in the 2021 NHL season when it looked like the Chicago Blackhawks had arrived back on the scene as a legitimate playoff contender. The young wave had injected

7:00 AM ET Believe it or not, some NHL teams have a single-digit number of games remaining on the 2021 schedule, though many playoff positions and seedings still have to sort themselves out. For this week’s NHL Power Rankings, we identified the toughest stretch of games remaining for every team. How we rank: The ESPN

6:54 AM ET Tim KavanaghESPN.com Close Tim Kavanagh is a senior NHL editor for ESPN. He’s a native of upstate New York. For weeks, it appeared that the East Division playoff slots were all but secured, but the New York Rangers have continued to lurk in that fifth position. Tonight, they’ll look to claw one

11:40 AM ET Patrick Marleau played his 1,768th game Monday night, breaking Gordie Howe’s NHL career record. Which naturally led to questions about whether anyone would ever break Marleau’s still-increasing games benchmark. “The modern game, the speed, the physicality … players are playing at a young age, but it’s very difficult to be as durable

10:11 PM ET Patrick Marleau‘s speed on the ice is legendary. His skating is a primary reason the 41-year-old San Jose Sharks forward has endured through 23 seasons to play in his 1,768th career game on Monday in Las Vegas, passing Gordie Howe for the most in NHL history. Off the ice, his speed is

7:00 AM ET As the Arizona Coyotes fight for a playoff spot — they’re fourth in the West Division, with a one-point lead over the St. Louis Blues — defenseman Jakob Chychrun has emerged as one of the team’s most important players. The 23-year-old leads Arizona in average ice time (23:09), surpassing captain Oliver Ekman-Larsson

6:26 PM ET Ready or not, the Vancouver Canucks will play their first game since March 24 on Sunday night at home. When they take on the Toronto Maple Leafs, however, the Canucks — who saw their season stalled by a lengthy COVID-19-related pause — will hardly have the type of lineup that Vancouver fans

7:47 AM ET Tim KavanaghESPN.com Close Tim Kavanagh is a senior NHL editor for ESPN. He’s a native of upstate New York. There are six games on the Sunday schedule in the NHL this week, and four of those six matchups are within the East Division. A quick glance at the standings shows that a

8:37 PM ET ESPN News Services Patrick Marleau tied Gordie Howe’s mark of 1,767 games played on Saturday night, when the San Jose Sharks played the Minnesota Wild. On Monday night, health permitting, he will set a new NHL record, against the Vegas Golden Knights. It will add to a lengthy list of accomplishments, of

7:31 AM ET Tim KavanaghESPN.com Close Tim Kavanagh is a senior NHL editor for ESPN. He’s a native of upstate New York. Saturday brings us an 11-game slate in the NHL, and it’s a schedule that will have hockey fans reminiscing about all-day hockey from the opening rounds of the 2020 postseason. The puck drops

7:44 AM ET Tim KavanaghESPN.com Close Tim Kavanagh is a senior NHL editor for ESPN. He’s a native of upstate New York. Fridays are typically light days on the NHL schedule, and this particular Friday is no exception to that rule, with just five games on the calendar. The good news is that all five

7:00 AM ET The 2021 NHL trade deadline was this week. “Dead” being the operative word. There were only 17 deals made on April 12, involving 26 players. Compare that with last season’s deadline day, which yielded 32 trades involving 55 players. But the 2020 NHL trade deadline happened in “the before times.” Obviously, a

7:42 AM ET Tim KavanaghESPN.com Close Tim Kavanagh is a senior NHL editor for ESPN. He’s a native of upstate New York. After a night off for all eight teams in the Central Division on Wednesday, they’ll all return to action on Thursday. Perhaps more tantalizingly, the schedule has blessed us with a showdown among

9:00 AM ET Sigh, the 2021 NHL trade deadline. We all sorta knew it was going to be a bust, what with the flat cap and the loss of revenue and the fact that teams didn’t want to overreact to anything happening — good or bad — in this janky, truncated season. We were all

7:31 AM ET Tim KavanaghESPN.com Close Tim Kavanagh is a senior NHL editor for ESPN. He’s a native of upstate New York. One of many unique aspects of the 2021 NHL season is that teams are playing all of their regular season games against division opponents — and those divisions were realigned for this season

7:00 AM ET With the 2021 NHL trade deadline in the rearview mirror, we now have a much clearer picture of what the final month of the season will look like. For this week’s power rankings, we identified the “hinge” player for every team down the stretch — as in, who could have the most